gulzaar-e damiidan shararistaan-e ramiidan
fur.sat tapish-o-;hau.salah-e nashv-o-numaa hech
1) garden of wind/boasting/blooming, spark-place of panic/flight
2) interval for the agitation/heat and courage/guts of growth and increase-- nothing!
damiidan : 'To blow (with the breath, or as the wind); to breathe; to fill oneself with wind; to blow, blossom (as flowers); to appear (as the dawn); ... to assault; to boast'. (Steingass p.500)
ramiidan : 'To be afraid, terrified, seized with horror; to be disturbed, agitated; to fly in terror, to shun from aversion; to frighten'. (Steingass p.587)
tapish : 'Heat, warmth; distress (esp. that caused by heat); affliction; agitation; palpitation'. (Platts p.309)
;hau.salah : 'Stomach, maw; crop, craw; (fig.) capacity; desire, ambition; resolution; spirit, courage'. (Platts p.482)
nushv-o-namaa : 'Growth and increase'. (Steingass p.1404)
nashv-numaa : 'Growing up'. (Steingass p.1405)
hech : 'Not any, none, no; nothing; — worthless, good-for-nothing; — shallow, superficial; — a mere trifle; — adv. Never; at no rate, on no account at all'. (Platts p.1244)
hech : 'Nothing; a mere trifle; lost, annihilated; never, at no rate, on no account at all'. (Steingass p.1520)
That is, this very 'garden of eternity' that was mentioned above [in {280x,3}], that ought to be verdant and flourishing, with buds and flowers blooming, with date-palms and saplings full of leaves and fruit, etc. etc.-- is not more than the flash of a spark. In such an untrustworthy and unstable living place, the interval for agitation and for the longing for growth and increase-- 'nothing'.
In Arshi's edition, he has given an i.zaafat on gulzaar and shararistaan . In my opinion, it's better for there not to be an i.zaafat . One thing is the flowering of the garden, which apparently will remain stable for many days. Another thing is for many sparks to emerge from something-- they have barely emerged, when they vanish; that is, they are extremely short-lived. The flowers of the garden too are generally red.
The poet says that the blossoming of flowers in the garden is only like fleeting sparks. The interval of life is only agitation and restlessness; nothing more than this is obtained. In the world, the courage for growth and increase is 'nothing', because the stay here is very brief. If there were fur.sat-e tapish then it would be better, but the scansion of the verse does not permit it.
SETS == LIST
For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.
This verse makes it clear that the ghazal is at least somewhat 'continuous', for the verse contains no clear subject. Asi avoids the problem by contenting himself with paraphrase. Zamin imports the 'garden of eternity' from {280x,3}. Gyan Chand says that the subject is life in this world. We're left to choose for ourselves.
That beautifully sonorous, internally-rhymed first line is so Persianized that it's actually (also) in Persian. The line takes full advantage of its finite-verb-free 'list' structure. Arshi, Raza, and most commentators (myself included) read it as 'A of B, C of D'; Gyan Chand strips the grammar down even further and reads 'A, B, C, D'. Obviously, such lists invite (and compel) us to do our own mix-and-match combining of the nouns. For more on such 'list' verses, and many examples, see {4,4}.
The two most obvious readings would seem to be 'A of B = C of D' and 'A of B versus C of D'. The possibilities are rich, and they are further enhanced by my own favorite part of the verse, that gorgeously multivalent damiidan (see the definition above). Just look-- we get to choose a 'garden of wind' (as in 'That's a lot of hot air'), a 'garden of boasting' (as in 'He's a blowhard'), or a 'garden of blooming' (as in 'full-blown').
A 'spark-place of panic/flight' is obviously something bad, but is it to be juxtaposed to a 'garden of wind' (since wind flares sparks into flame), or a 'garden of boasting' (since boasting is the opposite of panic and flight), or a 'garden of blooming' (since it's the very antithesis)? How can anybody create, time after time, these fantastic little Rubik's cubes of meaning?
Asi:
A garden of the sprouting of flight and departing is a 'spark-place'; its interval has only the rank of agitation, which is an entirely unstable thing, and the courage of its growth and increase is entirely 'nothing' and useless.
== Asi, p. 108