gar jalvah-e ;xvurshiid ;xariidaar-e vafaa ho
juu;N ;zarrah .sad aa))iinah-e be-zang nikaaluu;N
1) if the glory/appearance of the sun would be a buyer of faithfulness
2) I would bring out a hundred sand-grain-like mirrors without verdigris
SETS
JALVAH: {7,4}
MIRROR: {8,3}
SUN: {10,5}
ZARRAH: {15,12}
For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.
On the nature of zang , see {47,1}.
A sand-grain can glitter in the sun, and can thus be a 'mirror' of the sun's radiance. It can also be considered a fine mirror, because unlike a metal mirror it will not become covered with verdigris (on this see {47,1}) and require energetic polishing for proper maintenance. (For Ghalib's account of this polishing, see {34,2}.)
If the radiant beloved would by any chance become a 'buyer' of the lover's faithfulness, he would bring out as his wares a hundred tiny, humble, but excellently clear sand-grain-like hearts to show her. Such sand-grain mirrors would have the merit not only of being maintenance-free, but also of mirroring the sun from every possible angle (not just from one side, like a regular mirror) and of being exclusively devoted to the sun (since the sand-grains couldn't 'mirror' any ordinary image). Thus they well reflect (sorry, sorry) the lover's own 'faithfulness'.
But why a hundred of them? Because they're so tiny and insignificant that they are hardly even visible except in a crowd? Because the lover's heart is a hundred-fold, self-multiplyingly, focused on the beloved? Because the lover is madly prone to passionate exaggeration?
Gyan Chand:
In this verse by 'sun' is meant the beloved, and by 'mirror' is meant the heart. My heart is without color and radiance-- that is, it is pallid and dispirited/cool. But it is filled with faithfulness. The way the sun puts its glory/appearance onto colorless sand-grains and makes them colorful, in the same way if the beloved would ignore my dispiritedness/coolness, and value my faithfulness, then I can place before her hundreds of hearts.
== Gyan Chand, pp. 277-278