Ghazal 430x, Verse 5

{430x,5}

us bayaabaa;N me;N giriftaar-e junuu;N huu;N kih jahaa;N
maujah-e reg se dil paa-e bah zanjiir aave

1) in that desert I am a captive of madness, where
2) through/like a wave of sand, the heart would become foot-chained

Notes:

Zamin:

By the heart's being 'foot-chained' Mirza's meaning might perhaps be the heart's being entangled [ulajhnaa]. That is, madness brought me into a kind of desert where the breath is choked/halted.... This same theme he changes slightly and expresses in one other ghazal, like this: {92,2}.

== Zamin, p. 453

Gyan Chand:

Through madness, I am a prisoner in the power of a kind of desert where waves of sand have enchained not only the feet, but the heart as well-- that is, where sand flies with such violence that it's impossible to walk or move around, and the heart remains agitated/anxious.

== Gyan Chand, p. 478

FWP:

SETS
BONDAGE: {1,5}
DESERT: {3,1}
MADNESS: {14,3}

For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.

In the first line the speaker claims to be mad, and in the second line he proves it. To have chains, or shackles, on the feet is an obvious fate for a madman. But the speaker says that his 'heart' has the chained 'feet'-- an enjoyably bizarre quasi-personification. The heart's feet are bound or shackled with a 'wave of sand'-- an even harder thing to visualize (perhaps the sand-wave would wrap itself around the heart's feet like a rope?). The person whose mind works like this is a madman indeed.

But it's also possible to read the se as short for jaise , so that the foot-chained heart would become 'like' a wave of sand. This is surely a more piquant reading. For sand dunes are blown around slowly and randomly by the wind-- they can't make any progress, they can't go anywhere; they can't escape from the desert. The 'waves of sand' simply squat there, at the mercy of the wind; it's as if their bottom layers-- their 'feet'?-- have been chained or fettered.

Compare {92,2}, the similarly strange and haunting verse that has been rightly cited by Zamin.

Note for grammar fans: In the refrain, the aave appears where we would expect something like ho jaa))e . This is a translation of a Persian usage ( aamadan means both 'to come' and 'to become'). It was not current in Urdu, but when did that ever stop Ghalib from doing as he pleased?