vuh raaz-e naalah huu;N kih bah shar;h-e nigaah-e ((ajz
afshaa;N ;Gubaar-e surmah se fard-e .sadaa karuu;N
1) I am such a secret/mystery of lamentation that with the commentary of the gaze of weakness/wretchedness
2)
through/with/from the 'dust-sprinkled' [page] of collyrium, I would make a paper/account/'individual-verse' of a voice
shar;h : 'An exposition, explanation, interpretation, a running commentary (on a work or text), annotation; description'. (Platts p.724)
((ajz : 'Powerlessness, impotence, weakness, helplessness, submission, wretchedness'. (Platts p.759)
fard : 'A hemistich, a verse; couplet (being the half of a four-line stanza); a single sheet or strip (of paper); a piece, fragment; the outer fold (of a quilt, &c.); a draft (of an account); a register, record, statement, account-sheet; a list, roll, catalogue'. (Platts p.778)
For background see S. R. Faruqi's choices.
For more on the natural enmity between collyrium and the voice, see {147,1}; on collyrium in general see {44,1}.
The verse mingles literary imagery (commentary, decoratively 'dust-sprinkled' page, piece of paper of 'individual-verse') with use of the senses: the (vocal) lamentation, the gaze, the voice.
But does it really cohere into any kind of lucid meaning? The elaborate chains of metaphors become so far-fetched (most crucially, given the wide range of possibilities, how can we interpret fard-e .sadaa ?) that we can hardly tell how to read them. Perhaps indeed the basic prose paraphrase is, as Gyan Chand maintains, 'I would be silent'. But given what we know Ghalib can do in the space of two lines, is this much of a meaning really very interesting?
Gyan Chand:
For ornamentation, they sprinkle on a piece of paper water of gold, silver, or some other color. The marks of ornamentation are called 'dust'. They call such a piece of paper 'dust-sprinkled' [afshaa;N ;Gubaar]. Collyrium is the enemy of the voice. He says, 'I am such a secret/mystery of lamentation, that on the page of the voice I will scatter collyrium-dust'-- that is, the voice will not emerge. Why? For commentary on the weakness of the gaze, to remain silent is itself a great weakness. The intention is that because of weakness I am absolutely not lamenting. I am entirely silent. I have turned my lament into a secret/mystery. (259-60)