bah sa;xtiihaa-e qaid-e zindagii ma((luum aazaadii
sharar bhii .said-e daam-e rishtah-e rag'haa-e ;xaaraa hai
1) through the harshnesses of the prison of life, freedom-- 'known' [not to exist]!
2) even/also a spark is a prey of the net of connection of the veins of a rock
sa;xtii : 'Hardness, stiffness, rigidity, firmness; tightness; stinginess; obduracy, obstinacy; intenseness, intensity, vehemence, severity; harshness, asperity; sternness, austereness; violence, atrocity; cruelty; grievance, hardship; adversity, indigence, distress, difficulty, evil, calamity'. (Platts p.644)
;xaaraa : 'A hard stone, a flint'. (Platts p.483)
Raza p. 199; Raza p. 200. S. R. Faruqi's choices. Ghalib originally composed a ghazal of ten verses, from which he chose four for publication in his divan. In the original ten-verse ghazal, this verse was the ninth one.
For more on this colloquial use of ma((luum , see {4,3}.
Sparks are said to flow in the 'veins' of rocks the way blood flows in human veins-- after all, when you strike a human you get blood, and when you strike a rock you get a spark. This is the normal logic of the metaphor; for more on verses about sparks and stones, see {20,6}.
In this verse, however, the veins of a rock are presented as a ramifying network, reticulated like a net; thus they're suitably shaped to suggest the trapping of a hunter's prey, usually a bird or small animal, inside a net. The spark is trapped within this net of rock-veins, with its rough 'harshnesses', for as long as it lives; if it emerges into the outer world, it's only to die at once.
With the same irrevocability, humans are trapped within the 'harshnesses' of the (social? biological?) network of life. They have no more chance of escaping than the spark does-- and then, only on the same terms.
Compare {115,5}.
Gyan Chand:
Through the harshness of the prison of existence, freedom is not impossible. Outwardly, a spark seems to be very free and active. But even it is imprisoned in the net of the harsh veins of stone. For this reason, it cannot be free according to its longing. It is an abstract simile, but harmonious. (371)