saaz-e va;hshat-raqamiihaa kih bah i:zhaar-e asad
dasht-o-reg aa))inah-e .saf;hah-e afshaa;N-zadah hai
1) the making of wildness-writings! -- that with the evidence/testimony of Asad
2a) desert and sand is a mirror of the '[gold-]scattering'-adorned page
2b) a mirror of the '[gold-]scattering'-adorned page is desert and sand
saaz : 'Making, preparing, effecting; feigning; ... — s.m. Apparatus; instrument, implement; harness; furniture; ornament; concord, harmony; a musical instrument'. (Platts p.625)
va;hshat : 'A desert, solitude, dreary place; — loneliness, solitariness, dreariness; — sadness, grief, care; — wildness, fierceness, ferocity, savageness; barbarity, barbarism; — timidity, fear, fright, dread, terror, horror; — distraction, madness'. (Platts p.1183)
raqamii : 'Marked, written, committed or reduced to writing, recorded'. (Platts p.596)
i:zhaar : 'Manifestation, revelation, disclosure, demonstration, publication, display, declaration; ... deposition, evidence, written testimony'. (Platts p.60)
afshaa;N : 'Scattering, strewing, dispersing, shedding, pouring out (used in compn.); ( = zar afshaan ), Strips of gold and silver leaf or tinsel, or threads of muqqaish (q.v.) chipped very fine, pasted as ornaments on the forehead or the cheeks of women, or on books, letters, &c.'. (Platts p.62)
zadah : 'Struck, stricken, smitten, beaten; affected, afflicted; oppressed; — accentuated; drawn up in line, arrayed ... trimmed, adorned (used in comp.)'. (Platts p.615)
.saf;hah-e afshaa;N-zadah = A paper on which gold-colored tiny sprinkles would have been made, for adornment. In Asad's idiom, wilderness/'jungle' and sand are like a 'gold-scattering'-adorned page. That is, to him wilderness/'jungle' and sand seem very pleasing. This is the equipment of the creativity/creation of wildness. For wordplay with 'page', he has brought in raqam . To consider the sandy desert pleasing is the beginning of wildness/madness.
SETS == SYMMETRY
DESERT: {3,1}
MIRROR: {8,3}
WRITING: {7,3}
For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.
Here is another demonstration of the power of 'symmetry' (if A is B, then equally B is A). For Gyan Chand, the verse is about 'desert and sand', and how they inspire the creativity of the wild, mad lover (2a). For Zamin, the verse is about the mad lover's 'wildness-writing', and the resemblance of the page on which he writes to the desert and sand (2b). In either case, of course, the sprinkles of gold on fancy paper resemble (or reflect, or 'mirror') the glittering sand-grains on the flat plain 'page' of the desert.
Here the va;hshat works most enjoyably, since the word can apply to a 'desert' and also to 'distraction, madness'-- and many other kinds of 'wildness' in between the two (see the definition above). Thus 'wildness-writings' can have a wide range of meanings. Also enjoyable is i:zhaar , which is flexible enough so that 'Asad' can either be himself the 'demonstration, evidence', or else can be the source of a 'deposition' or 'written testimony' on the subject (see the definition above).
This verse integrates the 'mirror' into a well-developed network of imagery-- unlike {399x,4}, which leaves the 'mirror' in an awkward limbo.
Zamin:
He says, my wildness-writing-- that is, my wildness-- don't even ask! Since for the testifying to it, or the writing of this theme of wildness, the page of desert-scatteringness is becoming a piece of paper. For a piece of paper, the mirror is used as a metaphor, with regard to its cleanness/purity, and he has brought in the aa))iinah-saaz for wordplay. A page that is afshaa;N-zadah is one on which silver or gold would be scattered. And the paper that was used to write letters of consolation, royal decrees, etc., was always afshaanii . And letters about royal weddings too were usually scattered with red or saffron.
== Zamin, p. 443