be-.sarfah : 'Unprofitable'. (Platts p.204)
be-huudah : 'Absurd, vain, idle, unprofitable, fruitless; senseless, foolish, silly, stupid, nonsensical, frivolous; indecent, improper, obscene, foul, gross, immoral: — be-huudah-go , s.m. Talker of nonsense, babbler; coarse or obscene talker, foul-mouthed fellow: — be-huudah-go))ii , s.f. Idle talk, talking nonsense, absurdity, frivolity; obscene talk, scurrility'. (Platts p.213)
Wine-drinkers! The Advisor says useless and fruitless/nonsensical things. Put the cotton from the wine-flask in your ears, so that it would not let you hear his speech.
SETS == PETRIFIED PHRASES
WINE: {49,1}
For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.
On the imagery of the punbah of cotton, see {87,4}. The lively humor and perfect suitability of using the cotton stopper from a wine-bottle as an earplug, to keep out anti-wine advice, is a treat.
But there's also the piquant presence/absence of behuudah-go . This is a fixed phrase; Platts includes it (along with behuudah-go))ii ) within the definition of behuudah (see the definition above). Zamin actually offers us an equational definition: be-.sarfah-go = behuudah-go .
Ghalib ensures that we will recognize the stock phrase by placing the two words together; but he also ensures that the words will give us a small shock, by placing them in the wrong order. The Advisor is be-.sarfah-go behuudah . It's perfectly intelligible, but it feels awkward. The phrase be-.sarfah-go is semantically and structurally almost the same as behuudah-go (see the definition above), yet it's not the same, and thebehuudah itself is right there, lying so close at hand-- but out of place! And it's in the emphatic, closural rhyme-word position, so we can hardly fail to notice it.
It's a very clever effect. Perhaps it could even be thought to imitate the clumsy speech of intoxication!
Asi:
Oh rakish ones, the Advisor is greatly fruitless/nonsensical. In vain he goes around babbling nonsense. To save yourselves from hearing his vain babble, the thing to do is simply to put in your ears the cotton stopper of the wine bottle-- that is, the cotton that is placed instead of a cork, or along with a cork, in the bottle. You'll be saved from hearing this nonsense.
== Asi, p. 298