Ghazal 351x, Verse 2

{351x,2}*

dekh kar baadah-parasto;N kii dil-afsurdagiyaa;N
mauj-e mai mi;sl-e ;xa:t-e jaam hai bar-jaa maa;Ndah

1) having seen the wine-worshippers' heart-numbnesses
2) the wave of wine, like the line of the wineglass, is {'settled in place' / tired, languid, prostrate}

Notes:

afsurdagii : 'Frozenness; frigidity, coldness; numbness; dejection, melancholy, lowness or depression of spirits'. (Platts p.62)

 

bar-jaa : 'On the ground; prostrate, quiet; in place; properly placed; true, accurate, right'. (Steingass p.170)

 

maa;Ndah : 'Left, remaining; — fatigued, tired, weary, languid; ailing, indisposed'. (Platts p.985)

Asi:

In the wine-house [Asi's text has mai-kade me;N z dil-afsurdagii-e baadah-kashaa;N], because of the heart-numbness of the wine-drinkers the wave of wine, like the line of the wine-glass, has become unmoving and insensible, and in it there's not even a small amount of flowingness. All this is the effect of the numbness of the wine-drinkers.

== Asi, p. 207

Zamin:

The line of the wine-glass is motionless, the wave of wine is moving. But the numb-heartedness of the wine-drinkers has so increased that through its effect, the wave of wine too has taken on a state of congealedness and stillness and has become the line of the wine-glass. The gist is that it is our insensibility that doesn't allow us to benefit from the valuable favors of nature.

== Zamin, p. 311

Gyan Chand:

bar-jaa maa;Ndah = stable and established. The line of the wine-glass is settled and congealed. Having seen the extinguished hearts of the wine-drinkers, the wave of wine too has halted in one place. For the wave of wine to halt is possible when the wine would not be drunk. The manifestation of the wine-worshipers' numb-heartedness is that they don't drink wine.

== Gyan Chand, p. 320

FWP:

SETS == IDIOMS
WINE: {49,1}

For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}.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

On the 'line' of the wineglass, see {81,6x}.

The first line leaves us with the thought of the wine-drinkers' dil-afsurdagiyaa;N -- one of Ghalib's pluralized abstractions (for others, see {1,2}) that looks just as awkward in Urdu as 'heart-numbnesses' does in English. For human emotions, the usual sense of afsurdagii is of course 'dejection, melancholy, lowness or depression of spirits' (see the definition above). Under mushairah performance conditions, we're made to wait before we're allowed to hear who it is who has seen these 'heart-numbnesses'.

When we finally hear the second line, we learn that the observer is the 'wave of wine', and that its reaction to the sight has been to 'settle in place' as fixedly as the 'line' of the wineglass itself (on this see {81,6x}). The wave of wine has in effect been frozen-- and only now can we realize that in the first line the literal meaning of afsurdagii ('frozenness; frigidity, coldness') is also very much in play.

Then in the crucial final position we find bar-jaa maa;Ndah (see the definitions above), an idiomatic expression that Ghalib invokes, characteristically, in both its literal and colloquial senses. As a common phrase, the expression means something like 'settled in place'; see {63,1}, where it is used to describe stagnant water. But in a literal sense, both bar-jaa ('on the ground, prostrate') and maa;Ndah ('fatigued, languid, ailing') have independent meanings that could well apply to the 'numbness, dejection, melancholy' of the wine-drinkers.

Why are the devoted drinkers, the 'wine-worshippers', afflicted with 'heart-numbnesses' to a degree that, apparently through sympathetic magic, renders it impossible for them to drink? Are their dil-afsurdagiyaa;N culpable (their hearts are not warm and humane, but cold and frigid), or pitiable (they suffer from lover-like dejection and melancholy)? As so often, it's left up to us to decide.

For the supreme evocation of the 'wave of wine', see {49}, a paean to the powers of the mauj-e sharaab .