S. R. Faruqi:

This verse too is a good example of Mir's quality of being very much influenced by colors, especially red or orange colors. See for example:

{24,2},

{1102,5},

{1536,5}, and

{1354,3}.

Here there's also the pleasure that the water that's been colored by the reflection of the flowers has the effect of wine. That is, the reflection of the flowers doesn't merely color the water, it also creates in it the mood of intoxication.

It's also possible that the speaker's heart and mind might have been affected by wine to such an extent that any colored water would seem to him to be wine.

It's also possible to take 'rose' as a metaphor for the beloved-- that is, in the water the effect of wine has been created not only because the flower is reflected in it, but rather because the flower is a metaphor for the beloved. As though this isn't a flower, but in reality the beloved's face that's being reflected in the water.

Also, keep in mind that 'rose' is used as a simile for wine-glass and flagon. Thus this verse isn't as simple as it outwardly seems to be.

[See also {1504,2}.]

FWP:

SETS
MOTIFS == WINE
NAMES
TERMS

There's also the possibility that just as the roses have been not merely reflected but actually 'reversed' or 'inverted' into the water-channel (see the definition above), similarly the speaker will reverse or invert his own behavior, by filling his glass with water. The roses are out of place, having moved into the water-channel, and so 'in place of' wine the speaker will have water. But then, if it's rose-water, so to speak, won't it be at least as brilliantly intoxicating as wine?

In the metaphorically equational world of the ghazal, (red) roses and (red) wine, (drinkable) wine and (drinkable) water, are already easy to merge into each other. Now this verse has supplied the final linkage: the roses are merged into the water. So as our minds move back and forth around the triangle of roses <--> water <--> wine, the interpretive possibilities become as rich as we care to make them.