Ghazal 434x, Verse 11

{434x,11}*

josh-e faryaad se luu;Ngaa diyat-e ;xvaab asad
sho;xii-e na;Gmah-e bedil ne jagaayaa hai mujhe

1) through/from the ebullition of complaint I will take the blood-price of a dream/sleep, Asad
2) the mischievousness of the melody of Bedil has awakened me

Notes:

diyat : 'The law of retaliation; paying a mulct or compensation for manslaughter or maiming, price of blood'. (Platts p.555)

 

sho;xii : 'Playfulness, fun, mischief; pertness, sauciness; coquetry, wantonness; forwardness, boldness, insolence'. (Platts p.736)

 

na;Gmah : 'A soft, sweet voice; — a musical sound or tone; — melody; song; modulation; trill, shake'. (Platts p.1144)

Asi:

The ebullition of complaint murdered my condition of dream/sleep. Now I will take the blood-price from that ebullition of complaint, for my dream [;xvaab] and my sleep [nii;Nd]. So to speak, I was lying asleep, and Mirza Bedil's mischievous melody awakened me. That is, I was unaware-- but Bedil's style of speech/poetry made me conscious/alert.

== Asi, p. 306

Zamin:

From the ebullition of complaint I will take the blood-price of a dream/sleep-- that is, now I will wholeheartedly sing melodies, because Bedil's melodies have inclined me to melody-singing.

== Zamin, p. 440

Gyan Chand:

diyat = blood-price [;xuu;N-bahaa]. The mischievousness of Bedil's poetry awakened me, and in this style I began to compose poetry. My sleep was killed; I will take the blood-price for it through the ebullition of complaint. That is, I will lament very forcefully; the verses that will be created will be entirely of complaint.

Asi writes [the words quoted above]. In my view, the responsibility for awakening is not on the ebullition of complaint, it is on the melody of Bedil. The blood-price will be taken in the form of an ebullition of complaint.

== Gyan Chand, p. 457

FWP:

SETS == POETRY; SE
DREAMS: {3,3}
MUSIC: {10,3}

For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}.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

On the nature of the 'blood-price', see {21,9}.

This of course is one more in the group of closing-verses in which the young Ghalib extravagantly praises Bedil.

It's also an illustration of the versatility of se . Asi takes it as meaning 'from': Asad will claim the blood-price for his murdered dream/sleep 'from' the (semi-personified?) 'ebullition of complaint' that has awakened him, and has thus committed the murder. This 'ebullition of complaint' has apparently been generated by the 'mischievousness of the melody' of Bedil-- that is, Bedil may even have done it on purpose, out of mischief, in order to rouse the sleeping Asad.

Gyan Chand prefers 'through': Asad will claim the blood-price by means of, or in the form of, an 'ebullition of complaint'-- that is, a creative outburst of poetic composition. Presumably he will claim this blood-price of poetic ebullition from Bedil, the 'mischievousness' of whose 'melody' has awakened him (and has thus become guilty of murdering his dream/sleep). This reading has the advantage of setting up Asad for an outburst of poetic creativity.

But really, in a verse this abstract it's hard to bring the imagery into any kind of clear focus, either way.