Ghazal 430x, Verse 7

{430x,7}

sar-e ma((nii bah garebaan-e shaq-e ;xaamah asad
chaak-e dil shaanah-kash-e :turrah-e ta;hriir aave

1) the head of meaning-- in the collar of the split/crack of the pen, Asad
2) the rip in the heart would become a comb-wielder of the forelock/curl of writing

Notes:

shaqq (of which shaq is a variant): 'A split, rent, crack, fissure, cleft, chink, &c.'. (Platts p.729)

 

:turrah : 'Hair, or a fringe of hair, on the forehead; a forelock; a curl, ringlet; an ornament worn in the turban; an ornamental tassel, or border, &c.; a plume of feathers, a crest; a nosegay; (met.) the best, or the cream (of a thing)'. (Platts p.752)

Zamin:

He says that in adorning the forelock of writing, one is compelled to tear the heart into slices like a comb. And he gives the illustration that from the tearing of the heart the combing of the forelock of writing is as if the head of meaning would be bowed into the collar of the split/crack of the pen. The use of aave has done the work of a simile, but it's still the case that the construction of the verse has remained a tangle of curls.

== Zamin, pp. 453-454

Gyan Chand:

sar bah garebaa;N = through thought/anxiety or embarrassment, to lower the head. Here, thought/anxiety and dejection are intended. For the splitting of the pen, he has given the simile of the collar. In the second line, he has given for the sliced-up heart the simile of a comb; and for the line of writing, that of a curl. In our writing, the head of meaning is bowed over in the split/crack of the pen-- that is, meaning is very full of dejection. The rip in the heart is arranging the curls of writing-- that is, it is creating power of expression in the writing. So to speak, the wealth/capital of our writing or poetry is only/emphatically dejection and heartbrokenness.

== Gyan Chand, p. 479

FWP:

SETS == POETRY
CHAK-E GAREBAN: {17,9}
CURLS: {14,6}
SCRIPT EFFECTS: {33,7}
WRITING: {7,3}

For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}.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

After a reed pen has been made, its nib is split so that the split can pick up ink and channel it gradually down to the nib. Here, the head of (semi-personified) 'Meaning' is sunk down in thought or melancholy-- down into the split collar of the pen-nib, which evokes the classic lover's gesture of 'tearing the collar' (on this see 17,9}), or ripping the front of his kurta open in grief or crazed suffocation. Similarly, tearing open one's heart (vertically, with the fingernails, into strips?) might turn it into something like a primitive comb (though it's really impossible to visualize this) that could act to 'arrange the topknot/curls' of writing. Zamin understandably compares the construction of the verse to 'a tangle of curls'. But the general idea does seem to be, as Zamin and Gyan Chand agree, that it's the poet/lover's torn-open heart that enables him to 'arrange the curls' of writing to best effect.

Note for script and meter fans: Normally this meter begins with a long syllable, so we would tend to read the first word as sirr , 'secret/mystery'. And indeed this reading works just fine: a 'secret/mystery of meaning' makes a tantalizing opening for a verse. In this meter, however, a variant possibility is that the first syllable may also be short. But in the present verse, only when we come to the 'comb-wielder of the forelock/curl' can we really be sure that sar , 'head', is a better reading. But doesn't the ghost of a 'secret/mystery of meaning' continue to hover suggestively over the verse?

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?