Ghazal 404x, Verse 5

{404x,5}*

ham-nishiinii-e raqiibaa;N garchih hai saamaan-e rashk
lekin us se naa-gavaaraa-tar hai bad-naamii tirii

1) although the sitting-together with/of the Rivals is material/equipment for jealousy/envy
2) but still, more distasteful than that is your ill-repute

Notes:

naa-gavaaraa : 'Undigested; indigestible; unwholesome, unpalatable, unpleasant; unacceptable; — irksome; — unarranged'. (Platts p.1111)

 

bad-naamii : 'Bad name or character, disrepute, infamy, dishonour; defamation, ill-report, stigma'. (Platts p.139)

Asi:

Although the Rivals' sitting near you is for me material for jealousy/envy, and I am troubled by it, still I don't care at all about that kind of jealousy/envy and trouble. More even than that, your ill-repute is distasteful, and I am greatly troubled by it.

== Asi, p. 279

Zamin:

That is, ignore my jealousy/envy-- look at your own ill-repute.

== Zamin, p. 406

Gyan Chand:

Although your sitting near the Rivals is for me an occasion for jealousy/envy, but still, the idea that troubles me even more is that this practice is a source of ill-repute for you. Thus you should give up sitting near the Rivals.

== Gyan Chand, p. 406

FWP:

SETS

For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}.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

The word rashk can refer either to jealousy or to envy; on its complexities see {53,4}. In the present verse, it seems both impossible and unnecessary to try to distinguish between the two.

Asi and Gyan Chand clearly take the problem to be that the beloved sits together 'with' the Rivals; this is certainly the most obvious reading, and quite satisfactory.

Yet thanks to the versatility of the i.zaafat , there can also be another reading: the problem may instead be the sitting-together 'of' the Rivals themselves. Perhaps they huddle in a small group, gossiping and trading rumors, boasting about their own personal intimacy with the beloved or making snide remarks about her behavior. On this reading, the speaker is some well-intentioned person who warns the beloved about how such behavior on the Rivals' part becomes 'material for envy/jealousy', and contributes to her own 'ill-repute'.

Either way, it's not exactly a thrilling verse.