Ghazal 169, Verse 8

{169,8}*

saaqii bah jalvah dushman-e iimaan-o-aagahii
mu:trib bah na;Gmah rahzan-e tamkiin-o-hosh hai

1) the Cupbearer, with glory/appearance-- an enemy of faith/integrity and awareness/intelligence
2) the musician, with melody, is a highway-robber of dignity and understanding/judgment

Notes:

Nazm:

Then there's also a wordplay of 'collecting and scattering'. (190)

== Nazm page 190

Bekhud Dihlavi:

With such glory-manifesting, the Cupbearer has in truth become an enemy of faith/integrity and awareness; and the musician with his sweet-voicedness is a loot-taker and carrier-off of dignity and understanding. (245)

Bekhud Mohani:

The state of the gathering of the world is that the moment the Cupbearer shows his face, faith/integrity and wisdom take leave; and the moment the musician takes up his tune, the senses take flight. That is, having heard the melody, and having seen the Cupbearer's face, neither do the senses remain undisturbed, nor do wisdom and faith/integrity remain sound. (332)

FWP:

SETS == PARALLELISM
GATHERINGS: {6,3}
JALVAH: {7,4}
MUSIC: {10,3}
WARNINGS: {15,15}

This is the third verse of a seven-verse verse-set; for discussion of the whole verse-set, see {169,6}.

Like the previous verse, this one is built on strong and obvious parallelism-- which makes small differences all the more piquant and noticeable.

Most conspicuously, while the musician uses his 'melody'-- his proper professional equipment-- to destroy the listeners, the Cupbearer doesn't use its counterpart, the 'wine' which it's his duty to serve, and which has been alluded to in {169,6}. Instead, it's his jalvah , that favorite Ghalibian word: officially it means 'appearance', but in fact it means 'glorious appearance' or 'glory'. Thus this verse pursues the 'eye vs. ear' parallel lines of {169,7}, and even in the same order.

The Cupbearer thus does double duty, so that the sensual trio of 'wine, women, and song' of English carousal can be reduced to a pair. The Cupbearer provides both wine and beauty-- very probably the androgynous beauty of a boy who hasn't quite reached puberty-- and the musician provides melody; usually the 'musician' is a placeholder for both songs and instrumental music.