S. R. Faruqi:

There are two senses of shai;xii , and here both are fruitfully meaningful: (1) arrogance, boastful speech; (2) venerableness, Shaikh-ness. In both senses the verse can be sarcastic. The words ;haal and qaal are terms of the Sufis. By ;haal is meant an inner state; and by qaal is meant the expression of that inner state by means of words.

This sense of ;haal and qaal is used in common speech as well. When we say that old buildings tell the story of their residents in zabaan-e ;haal , then what we mean is that seeing old buildings, thoughts about their residents pass through our minds. That is, zabaan-e ;haal is in reality another name for inner and emotional effects and moods of the observer alone. And zabaan-e qaal is the speech of that person or creature whom we are viewing.

Now consider the meaning of the verse:

(1) The ways of the big talkers, the braggarts, have now changed. Now they claim to have a state/condition of some other kind, and they talk in some other style. What kind of state and what kind of speech-mode they are in, he has not explained. Arrogance and boastfulness now have arrived at a new perfection/accomplishment; he has presented them from a common point of view and left it at that: you can apply that viewpoint in whatever way and whatever place you like.

(2) Those people who claim venerableness and 'shaikh-ness'-- now they manifest their perfection/accomplishment by means of some other kind of ;haal-o-qaal . That is, in place of the kind of ;haal-o-qaal that is usually associated with venerableness, is another kind of style entirely. That is, the image and association of 'shaikh-ness' has become entirely corrupt.

But the verse has yet another meaning. If it's taken to be sarcastic, then we can say that the lover is expressing his experiences-- that now our rank has become so much more exalted than that of a lover, that now we have acquired the power to conceal our true state. One thing passes through the heart ( ;haal ), but we speak of something else ( qaal ).

Another reading is that although there is a ;haal (inward experience), still our qaal is something else. That is, our qaal is that there's not even any ;haal at all.

He has presented a lofty example of an 'ambiguous' style of speech. It's surprising that in that era, relatively young people too used to compose such verses.

FWP:

SETS == IDIOMS
MOTIFS
NAMES
TERMS == AMBIGUITY

SRF has rung the changes on ;haal and qaal , but let's not forget the real kicker, kuchh aur -- 'something more', 'something different' (see the definition above). I was taught that for the latter sense, 'something different', aur kuchh should be used, but I've often heard kuchh aur used in a very protean way. To get the idiomatic flavor, just think of 'something else' in English. It can be neutral ('I've already looked at these, please show me something else'). But it can often be wildly emphatic-- 'She's really something else!' can show extravagant admiration, or else extreme dislike. It's the kind of expression powered partly by context and even more by tone. It really wants to be said with a roll of the eyes. It's often so exclamatory that it's almost insha'iyah in itself. Since kuchh aur is the refrain, the other verses in this ghazal take similar advantage of its idiomatic richness.

Thus in the present verse kuchh aur works beautifully with the other kinds of ambiguity noted by SRF.

Note for grammar fans: The grammar of the second line is irresistibly flexible. If the line is read as 'A is; and B is something else' (2a), then it calls attention to a discrepancy between A and B. If the line is read as 'A is, and B [too] is, something else' (2b), then both A and B are being similarly exclaimed over.