hai daur-e qada;h vaj'h-e pareshaanii-e
.sahbaa
yak baar lagaa do ;xum-e mai mere labo;N se
1) the {going-round / time-cycle} of the flagon is a cause of perturbation
to/of the wine
2) one time, place the wine-cask to my lips
daur : 'Going round, moving in a circle, revolving; revolution (of a body, or of time); circular motion; the going round, or circulating (of wine); the cup handed round; the coming round in turn (of days or times); vicissitude; ... —a period of years, time, age, cycle; a turn, tour, round, course, progress'. (Platts p.532-33)
pareshaanii : 'Dispersion, scattering, confusion, disorder, derangement, perplexity, bewilderment, perturbation, distraction; distress, embarassment, trouble, misery'. (Platts p.259)
;xum : 'A large vessel or jar; an alembic, a still'. (Platts p.493)
Wine is a cause of affection; to make it perturbed is not becoming; and the circulation of the flagon is a cause of perturbation.... To express one's meaning with such excellence, and to present it with a 'proof' [daliil], is not devoid of pleasure.
In the circulation of the cups, the wine will be apportioned to everybody. It's obvious that those who drink a great deal will not be satisfied. It will also be necessary to wait. Don't make me part of the circulation-- one time, tilt the cask! (265)
What a witty and amusing little verse! And as a play on the multiple possibilities of pareshaanii , it's superb-- rivaled only perhaps by {111,8}.
Because of the flexibility of pareshaanii (with its literal and metaphorical meanings all fully available) and the ambiguities of the i.zaafat construction, the first line can be read in two different ways. It might be the cautionary complaint of an oenophile, a gourmet wine-lover: 'Careful! Don't you know the wine has to 'rest'? All this pouring and sloshing isn't good for it! It needs to settle.' Or it might be the empathic murmur of a compassionate kindred spirit: 'All this going around in circles-- how could the wine not feel dizzy, perturbed, shaken up? When the wine is so kind to us, how can we torment it so?' Until we're allowed, under mushairah conditions, to hear the second line, we have no idea which way to read the first one.
And of course, when we hear the second line, we can't help but laugh: not only does it work perfectly as a solution to the problem posed in either reading of the first line, but it adds considerable energy, charm, and humor of its own. If the wine cask (or even, still more extravagantly, the still in which the wine is made) is placed directly to my lips, all problems will be over. The wine will no longer be 'perturbed' by circulating, since I'll drink it all. Isn't that the perfect solution? Aren't I thoughtful, inventive, and humane? Aren't you grateful for my self-sacrifice and helpfulness?
Best of all, oh Cupbearer, you'll only need to do this 'one time' [yak baar], and that will suffice-- apparently forever. The lover does, after all, claim to have the most extraordinary wine-drinking capacities; remember {12,2}. The 'going-round' [daur] in the first line can also refer to the vast cycles of the revolving years, the wheel of time, etc., so the juxtaposition with that emphatically single 'one time' in the second line is another source of pleasure.
This is the first verse in which Ghalib contrasts the 'cask' with lesser, commonplace wine vessels. Other amusing examples include: {175,3} and {178,8}. For a full discussion of wine containers, see {28,1}.
Nazm:
The perturbation of the wine in circulation is obvious: whoever takes part in the circulation will drink, and the wine will be divided, and for divided things to be pareshaa;N is inevitable. And when one single individual drinks all the wine, then the wine will be saved from pareshaanii . The way it was in one place in the cask/still, so it will now remain in one place in my head. To create hyperbole about the amount of wine-drinking has been a longstanding habit of poets. The author too has imitated this; otherwise, this theme has no pleasure. (143)
== Nazm page 143