((ishq ke ta;Gaaful se harzah-gard hai ((aalam
ruu-e shash-jihat aafaaq pusht-e chashm-e zindaa;N hai
1) from/through the heedlessness of passion, the world is a gadabout/gossipper
2a) the face of the six-directions horizon is the 'back of the eyes' of a prison-cell
2b) the 'back of the eyes' of a prison-cell is the face of the six-directions horizon
harzah : 'Vain, futile, idle, frivolous, absurd, nonsensical; —s.m. Nonsense, twaddle; —trifles, bagatelles; ... — harzah-gard , s.m. A gad-about, a gossip'. (Platts p.1225)
aafaaq : 'Horizons; quarters of the heavens; quarters of the world; regions'. (Platts p.61)
pusht-i chashm tang (naazik) kardan : 'To look at with coquetry, with feigned or real disdain, with pride'. (Steingass p.251)
SETS == A,B; WORDPLAY
BONDAGE: {1,5}
Raza p. 187. S. R. Faruqi's choices. Ghalib originally composed a ghazal of eight verses, from which he chose three for publication in his divan. In the original eight-verse ghazal, this verse was the sixth one.
The first line makes an assertion, but it's so abstract and vague that we can only hope for clarification from the second line. And do we get it? Ha ha ha, dream on!
The second line only compounds the confusion and amplifies and ambiguities. For a discussion of the 'back of the eyes' [pusht-e chashm], see {61,5}; see also the definition above of the related Persian idiom. On the 'six directions', see {41,4}. The prison cell is a small, dim place, usually windowless, and presumably its back part is the darkest. What could be a greater contrast to it than the whole, broad, bright, open 'six-directions horizon'? Of course, they're linked by the enjoyable wordplay of 'face' and 'back' and 'eyes'.
So what readings of the first line can explain the equation, in the second line, of what seem to be extreme opposites? Here are some possibilities:
=because passion is heedless, to it the world seems foolish, narrow, and full of nonsensical gadding about-- the 'breadth' of the horizons is really no greater than that of the darkest corner of a prison cell
=because passion is heedless, to it the world seems foolish, narrow, and full of nonsensical gadding about-- the darkest corner of a narrow prison cell would be no different from the 'breadth' of the horizons
=because passion is heedless, the world gawks at it and gossips about it obsessively-- so that the whole 'breadth' of the world's attention is no wider than the narrow corner of a prison cell
Not the best verse, but not the worst either. I keep thinking that there's something else going on that I haven't perceived-- probably something idiomatic.
Gyan Chand:
pusht-e chashm = ta;Gaaful karnaa . Two meanings are possible. (1) Since lovers have adopted heedlessness toward the world, the world is lost in nonsense-gossip. What are the six directions of the horizon? The heedlessness of the rakish ones. (2) Since passion has adopted heedlessness toward reality, it is doing nonsense-gossip in the world. From where does the radiance of the horizons come? From the heedlessness of the lovers-- heedlessness that, to them, is from their beloved. The second meaning is closer to the tradition of the ghazal. (388)