hujuum-e ;Gam se yaa;N tak sar-niguunii
mujh ko ;haa.sil hai
kih taar-e daaman-o-taar-e na:zar me;N farq mushkil hai
1) from the assault/crowd of grief, to this extent
I've obtained {abasement / 'low-headedness'}
2) that between the thread of the garment-hem and the thread of the gaze,
the difference/distance is difficult [to tell]
hujuum : 'Assault, attack; effort; impetuosity; --crowd, throng, concourse, mob; a swarm'. (Platts p.1221)
sar-niguun : 'Downcast, dejected; depressed; mean, abject, vile; --backward, inverted; prone; head-downwards; upside-down, topsy-turvy'. (Platts p.648)
He says, so much grief has fallen to my lot that from the burden of it my head has sunk down to the hem of my robe in such a way that a difference is not perceptible between the threads of the robe and the thread of the gaze. (247)
From the abundance of grief my head has bowed down in such a way that it is difficult to distinguish between the thread of the gaze and the thread of the garment-hem. That is, now my head doesn't get lifted up from my knees. (335)
SETS == WORDPLAY
This verse offers two kinds of wordplay. The first is based on the multivalence of sar-niguunii (literally, 'low-headedness'). As can be seen from the definition above, it has a wide range of meanings, all of which work cleverly with the second line. Why is my head so greatly lowered? Perhaps because (1) I've been assaulted by a vicious mob of griefs, and they have beaten me down under their onslaught. Or perhaps because (2) my griefs including many humiliating memories and realizations about my abject sufferings, so that my head is bowed in embarrassment; I can't possibly look anybody in the eye. Or perhaps because (3) I've been made truly 'vile' or 'mean' by my desperate passion, so that I feel not just social embarrassment but moral shame: I am not worthy to raise my head. Or perhaps (4) I've been so undone by grief that I'm literally 'topsy-turvy', my whole life is 'upside-down'. Any-- or all, since they're not mutually exclusive-- of these possibilities would beautifully and wittily interact with the second line.
Then the second line offers us an excellent 'objective correlative': both the garment-hem, literally, and the gaze, metaphorically, are associated with a 'thread'. The garment-hem is not just made of (threads of) fabric, but also is probably embroidered or otherwise decorated with a fancy border that would involve the addition of special 'threads'; and in a long, dignified robe, the garment-hem is located as low as possible, somewhere down near the ankles. And the gaze is a metaphorical 'thread' that is so strongly established as such that it can actually be used for book-binding purposes, as in {10,12}. (From being so clearly a thread, it can also become a hair, as in {172,2}.) The commentators point out the meaning, but not the cleverness or wit.
For another extravagant depiction of this hunched-over position, see {172,1}.
Nazm:
From the burden of grief, the head has sunk down to the garment-hem; now the thread of the garment-hem has become so juxtaposed to the thread of the gaze that it's difficult to distinguish between them. (192)