Ghazal 146, Verse 3x

Gyan Chand:

In intoxication, it's as if from the stomach vapors/fumes rise up toward the brain; thus the simile of smoke for them is appropriate. If wine would be drunk without going into the garden, then its intoxication will be like the smoke of a lamp that is being extinguished; and the wine-glass will be like the wound/scar of an extinguished lamp-- a lamp of which even the wound/scar will be extinguished. (351-52)

Faruqi:

Gyan Chand has made the verse quite pedestrian. Smoke and intoxication have the following similarities:

(1) Smoke rises slowly in the form of a spiral, as if it were going round and round, suggesting dizziness. Intoxication also rises slowly, going up and making the drinker dizzy, as if smoke were spiralling away. The sensation is pleasurable and it also gives a feeling of instability.

(2)  Intoxication is always a shade of darkness: the third stage of intoxication is to be siyaah-mast ; the fourth and the final stage is to be ;xaraab . It's obvious that siyaah-mastii is similar to smoke; ;xaraab means 'destroyed, preferably by a flood'. The similarity between darkness, the flow of wine, the wave of intoxication, and the flood is obvious.

(3) Intoxication makes a person un-alert; that is, one who doesn't see properly; it's commonly said that nashe me;N kuchh nahii;N suujhtaa . Hence intoxication =darkness =smoke.

But Ghalib goes beyond these well-known similarities. The smoke rising from an extinguished '(killed') lamp is a thing of sadness, suggesting all kinds of loss. So drinking in a place which is not a chaman (=garden =locale of pleasure =beloved's company) is actually a sad thing, or it causes sadness. One does get intoxication, but the intoxication brings sadness; it has smoke-like properties, but the smoke is that of an extinguished (killed) lamp.

Consider the second line: Wine is often compared to fire, for obvious reasons. It has a fiery taste; it has a fiery colour; it rises in the glass the way flame rises from the hearth, etc. Strong wine is called do-aatashah , 'having two fires', hence double-distilled; sih-aatashah is also a familiar phrase. Now when you extinguish the lamp, its wick tends to remain fiery and glowing for a few seconds. So a wine-glass in which there's wine is a container of fire (=burning spark =wick of a lamp just extinguished). Fire leaves a scar when it doesn't burn something fully. So the wine-glass, though full of fire, is like a scar left by a fire, for it's bright and hot (with wine=fire), like the wick of a just-extinguished lamp. (--Private communication, July 2009)

FWP:

SETS
WINE: {49,1}

For background see S. R. Faruqi's choices.

I didn't feel very comfortable with this verse; there was obviously some kind of connection in it that I hadn't fully fathomed. Faruqi had marked it out most particularly as a fine verse, and I couldn't see why. So I asked him, and he was kind enough to reply in some detail. His analysis is reproduced above. The metaphorical use of 'garden' was something I hadn't factored in; also the idea that when fire doesn't burn something fully what's left is a 'scar'.