nihaa;N hai gauhar-e maq.suud jeb-e ;xvud-shinaasii me;N
kih yaa;N ;Gavvaa.s hai tim;saal aur aa))iinah daryaa hai
1) the sought-for pearl is hidden in the {neck-opening / breast / heart} of self-knowing
2a) 'kih' here the pearl-diver is an image and the mirror is a sea
2b) 'kih' here the image is a pearl-diver and the sea is a mirror
maq.suud : 'Intended, meant; purposed, designed; proposed; desired, wished, sought; —s.m. Intent, intention, design, purpose, drift, aim, view, desire, object, scope (syn. maq.sad )'. (Platts p.1056)
jeb : 'The opening at the neck and bosom (of a shirt, &c.); the breast-collar (of a garment); the heart; the bosom; (the Arabs often carry things within the bosom of the shirt, &c.; and hence the word is now applied by them to) a pocket'. (Platts p.412)
;Gavvaa.s : 'One who dives (in the sea) for pearls'. (Platts p.773)
tim;saal : 'Resemblance, likeness, picture, portrait, image, effigy'. (Platts p.336)
Raza p. 199. S. R. Faruqi's choices. This verse is from another different, unpublished, ham-:tar;h ghazal from the same year, and is included for comparison. In the unpublished ghazal, this was the second verse.
The first line cleverly misdirects us, because with that 'neck-opening' we at once think of the lover's tearing open of his collar [chaak-e garebaa;N]; for discussion of this motif, see {17,9}. If the sought-for pearl is hidden in the 'neck-opening' of self-knowing, wouldn't the next step be to tear open that neck-opening in order to reveal it? We readily begin to speculate about where the second line will take this pattern of imagery; and of course, under mushairah performance conditions we're given as much time as possible to speculate before we're allowed to hear the second line.
Then, of course, the second line starts entirely afresh, with a new set of images: of a pearl-diver and the sea, and/or of an image and the mirror. Thanks to what I call 'transitivity', the two 'A is B' equations (2a) can equally well be read as 'B is A' (2b). Moreover, the most lucidly parallel reading would seem to be a combination: 'the pearl-diver is an image and the sea is a mirror', and/or 'the image is a pearl-diver and the mirror is a sea'. But as in the previous verse, since the level of abstraction is so high, how much difference does it really make?
In addition, this verse deploys the possibilities of kih in almost exactly the widely ramifying way that the previous verse, {145,12x}, does as well. Since I've tried to slice and dice all the possibilities for that verse, I won't repeat the whole process here.
Even the little word 'here' adds further ambiguities. As a rule it means something like 'in the lover's mind', or else 'in this mortal world'. In the present verse, it could be either of these. But since the first line seems to set up a special realm of mystical quest, it could also mean 'in the special realm of the pursuit of self-knowing'.
Each line is striking in its own way, but is there really that much connection between them? Does the imagery really work together to make a whole greater than the sum of its parts?
Gyan Chand:
The pearl of desire/seeking is present in the neck-opening of self-knowing. Consider the mirror to be a sea. In it the human form dives, when it brings up the pearl of self-knowing. From looking at one's form in a mirror, awareness about oneself is after all obtained. (368)