Ghazal 360x, Verse 3

{360x,3}*

diivaanagii hai tujh ko dars-e ;xiraam denaa
mauj-e bahaar yak-sar zanjiir-e naqsh-e paa hai

1) it's madness, to give you lessons in movement/gait!
2) the wave of springtime is entirely/'one-head' the chain/shackle of a footstep/footprint

Notes:

;xiraam : 'Pace, gait, walk, march; stately gait, graceful walk; strut'. (Platts p.488)

 

yak-sar : 'Under one head; — in one body, all together; at one stroke, all at once, suddenly; — from beginning to end; — alone'. (Platts p.1251)

Asi:

To give you instruction in coquettish movement is not less than madness and insanity. Your footprints have a likeness to the wave of spring. That is, when your footsteps form a shape on the ground, they seem to be a chain/fetter, and that chain/fetter seems to be like the wave of springtime.

== Asi, p. 280

Zamin:

He has given for the wave of springtime the simile of a footprint because in springtime flowers bloom, which are the footprints of the springtime. The simile of flowers for footprints is well-known; Mirza has reversed it and given it freshness. From this simile it is learned that the springtime is in constant movement, it has no stability.

Thus he says, 'Take a lesson from the movement/gait of the world-- when you look attentively at it, you will realize that springtime is the best season of the world; it too is in motion, such that the wave of springtime has become a single chain-link of the footprint. After obtaining this lesson, then to give the world instruction in movement-- what else can be the result of this except madness?'

== Zamin, p. 407

Gyan Chand:

An attempt to teach you movement/gait is madness. The wave of springtime wants to do this very thing, but what shape is it in?! It is like a single chain/shackle that has been put on its own footprint. Since the wave of springtime had committed the madness of teaching you movement/gait, it was considered necessary to put a chain/shackle on its feet. That chain/shackle itself is the wave of springtime.

== Gyan Chand, pp. 406-407

FWP:

SETS
BONDAGE: {1,5}
MADNESS: {14,3}
SPRINGTIME: {13,2}

For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}.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

Gyan Chand is surely right to take the verse as addressed to the beloved, and as extolling her grace of movement, her stylish way of walking. Her movement is contrasted with that of the much less graceful 'wave of springtime'. By comparison to the beloved's grace of movement, the graceful, flowing, beautiful 'wave of springtime' itself is no more than a 'chain/shackle on the footstep'-- something that would be guaranteed to move in a clunky, clanking, jerky way. (And also, of course, something associated with madmen.)

But really, the connection between the lines is not very intelligible. Ghalib has given us a puzzle from which a few pieces seem to be missing.

Compare {361x,5}, in which the dars-e ;xiraam and the naqsh-e paa are taken in quite a different direction.