Ghazal 233, Verse 6

Nazm:

That is, in order to make an adorned garment-hem, I am dipping the eyelash-pen in the blood of the heart. (264)

== Nazm page 264

Bekhud Dihlavi:

He says, 'I have again dipped the pen of the eyelashes in the blood of the heart, so that on the border of the garment I would make rose-embroideries [gul-kaariyaa;N]'. (321-22)

Bekhud Mohani:

Again I am dipping the pen of my eyelashes in the blood of the heart, so that with tears of blood I would make the garment-hem into a blooming garden. (497)

FWP:

SETS

On the structure of this ghazal as a kind of loosely 'continuous' one, see {233,1}.

I suspect that 'garden-adornment' [chaman-:taraazii] was an established name for some special kind of embroidery, presumably one with a floral motif; but I haven't been able to verify this possibility. The commentators feel that the speaker is preparing to perform this kind of adornment on his garment-hem, using his bloody tears as they drip from the 'pens' of his eyelashes.

The physical image behind this idea is that the grieving lover might be seated in a hunched-over position with his head very much lowered, so that his bloody tears would drip directly down and land on his garment-hem. (Hems and borders of garments were often decorated with special bands of embroidery.) Or perhaps he would be in the do-zaanuu position; for discussion of this, see {32,2}.

Another possible reading would be that the speaker has already completed the 'arrangement' of this garment-hem decoration, and is now 'again' refilling his eyelash-pen with his heart's blood, preparing for some new act of creative bloody-tears rose-floral embroidery.