Ghazal 123, Verse 11

Nazm:

[He comments on the whole verse-set at {123,9}.]

== Nazm page 132

Bekhud Dihlavi:

Mirza Sahib, while on the way to Calcutta in connection with his pension, halted for some months in Lucknow and Banaras. In this closing-verse, he alludes to that. (186)

Bekhud Mohani:

[He comments on the whole verse-set at {123,9}.]

FWP:

SETS == EK; WORD
ROAD: {10,12}
SCRIPT EFFECTS: {33,7}

This is the final verse of a three-verse verse-set; for general comments, see {123,9}. For discussion of jaadah , see {9,4}.

What an extraordinarily fruitful use of the word kashash ! Even by Ghalibian standards, it's a marvel. There are of course the conspicuous sound collisions of three abrupt 'k' words in a row-- kashash-e kaaf-e karam . And here are some of the interpretive possibilities:

=A hope/expectation carries us along in some direction; to us the attraction of the road is the magnetic pull of access to kindness/generosity.

=A hope/expectation carries us along in some direction; to us the sweep of the road is the sweep of the tall letter 'k' at the beginning of the word 'kindness'/generosity.

=A (vain) hope/desire carries us off somewhere-- to us, the path of the road is the difficulty/ trouble/ misunderstanding in obtaining initial access to kindness/generosity.

Aren't these rich possibilities? And all of them even applicable, too, to Ghalib's real-life situation as a poet en route to Calcutta, seeking to have his share of a family pension increased by the East India Company. Nobody is as good as Ghalib at this sort of radically multivalent and yet utterly meaningful, relevant, even inevitable-seeming wordplay.