((uruuj-e nashshah hai sar taa qadam qadd-e chaman-ruuyaa;N
bajaa-e ;xvud vagarnah sarv bhii miinaa-e ;xaalii hai
1) it is the height/ascent of intoxication, from head to foot-- the stature of the garden-faced ones
2) in its own right/'place', otherwise, even/also the cypress is an empty wineglass/cup
((uruuj : 'Ascent; ascension; rising; exaltation; — zenith'. (Platts p.760)
That is, the cypress too has a similitude with the stature of the garden-faced ones, but it is an empty cup; so where in it is the effect of the cypress of the garden (the stature of the beloved), which sways and moves in intoxication?
The stature of beautiful ones seems to be, from top to bottom, full of intoxication. The phrase 'height of intoxication' has been well chosen. An intoxication-bearing mood is in the very stature of beautiful people. Otherwise the cypress, which is the exemplar of beauty of stature, does not create any intoxication. There is a similitude with a bottle, but only with an empty bottle.
SETS == STRESS-SHIFTING
For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.
The 'stature' of the garden-faced ones is the ((uruuj , the 'height' of intoxication; the elegant wordplay is fortunately just as available in English as it is in Urdu. This superior, multivalent 'height' is juxtaposed to the mere 'stature' of the cypress. The cypress is, 'in its own right', an empty wineglass. What exactly does it lack? The answer depends on where we place the stress in the first line:
=The cypress has mere stature; the garden-faced ones have a stature full of intoxication.
=The cypress has mere generalized stature; the garden-faced ones have intoxication that runs 'from head to foot'.
=The cypress has only its own identity ('in its own right'); the 'garden-faced' ones embody the intoxication of the whole garden.
=The cypress is merely an empty wineglass; the garden-faced ones are full wineglasses.
Asi:
The truth is that the beloved's stature, from head to foot, creates the mood of the summit of the intoxication of wine, and through this he obtains the pleasure of the height of the intoxication of wine. Otherwise, if heart-attraction and delicacy would be said to depend only on the stature itself, then every cypress seems to be an empty cup-- what would even be left?! Only this difference is a cause of heart-attraction and increase of joy.
== Asi, p. 227