dekhtaa huu;N va;hshat-e shauq-e ;xarosh-aamaadah se
faal-e rusvaa))ii sirishk-e sar bah .sa;hraa-daadah se
1) I see, from the wildness/madness of ardor that has come into a state of turmoil,
2) an omen/augury of disgrace, from the tears of the head that has been given over to the desert
SETS
DESERT: {3,1}
MADNESS: {14,3}
For background see S. R. Faruqi's choices.
This is the first of three verses in this ghazal that use the same rhyme-word: it is joined by {223,4x} and {223,5x}. In the original 1816 ghazal they were not sequential, since the two published verses appeared between {223,4x} and {223,5x}. It's not so unusual for Ghalib to use the same rhyme-word twice in a ghazal, but three times is extraordinary.
There's got to be some kind of wordplay and meaning-play going on here with the idea of the tears and the desert (compare the brilliant {17,2}). Is it that the 'head that has been given over to the (dry) desert' is, paradoxically, the source of the (wet) tears? In any case, as Gyan Chand points out, to be 'given over to' the desert means to be intent upon it, focused on it. Could there have been some kind of divination that involved tears?
Or if we redo the i.zaafat groupings, is it that the tears themselves are described as having 'heads that have been given over to the desert'? The i.zaafat groupings are also flexible in the first line (is it the 'wildness of ardor' that has 'come into turmoil', or is it the 'wildness' of 'ardor that has come into turmoil?), but there it doesn't seem to make any appreciable difference. If it's the tears that have given themselves over to the desert, is that a form of death-wish?
Gyan Chand:
The madness fomented by turmoil and confusion is at full force. Tears are flowing in such abundance that they have created the aspect of a wilderness [jangal]. Madness too will draw me toward the wilderness. And from both of them-- that is, the madness of passion and the flowing tears-- signs of disgrace can be seen. sar bah .sa;hraa daadah = intent on the desert. (390)