Ghazal 6, Verse 10x

Asi:

Oh my God, to what an extent the heart of Majnun has finally turned to dust, how it has mingled into the dust! -- such that the form of every sand-grain has become the 'suvaida' of the heart of the desert! And just this is the sign of its having become dust.

== Asi, p. 55

Zamin:

That is, in the desert however many sand-grains there are, they are of the dust of Majnun's burnt heart. He has turned to dust; when he has burned into dust/ashes, then he has become black and has become the 'suvaida' of the desert.

== Zamin, p. 35

Gyan Chand:

;xaak honaa = in the idiom, this means 'to become weak/incapable'. But here the meaning of 'to turn into a dust-grain and mingle with the dust' has come in. To what an extent the heart of Majnun has mingled with the dust, such that it has become the 'suvaida' of the heart of every sand-grain of the wilderness! A suvaida is black. Majnun's burnt heart too must be black. From the sand-grains' being the suvaida of the heart there is this interpretation too: that these sand-grains must be very dear to the desert.

== Gyan Chand, p. 71

FWP:

SETS
DESERT: {3,1}
ZARRAH: {15,12}

For background see S. R. Faruqi's choices. This verse is NOT one of his choices; I thought it was interesting and have added it myself. For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}.

In a variant of the 'kya effect', kis qadar can be of course be an exclamation of amazement ('To what an extent...!') as in (1a). But it can also be a question ('To what extent...?) as in (1b), posed by in inquirer who is trying to understand the appearance of the desert.

Every sand-grain seems to be imprinted with, to be the very image of, the 'suvaida'-- the 'dark spot in the heart'-- of the desert. On the complexities of the suvaidaa , see {3,2}.

What exactly is the connection with Majnun? Of course, Majnun lived in the desert; he in fact haunted the desert, it was his 'haunt'. In a number of verses Ghalib plays with this relationship. In particular, consider {140,6}: every dwelling is honored according to the status of its dweller, and when Majnun dies the whole wilderness is left 'solitary, sad'. From there, it's not such a leap to imagine that when Majnun's heart breaks down into dust, every sand-grain with which this dust has mingled would reflect or mirror, or even itself contain, the 'dark spot in the heart' of Majnun-- and/or of the desert, since in the ghazal world Majnun himself is somehow the spirit, the 'heart', of the desert.

Or consider {214,2}, in which the whole world, 'from end to end', literally 'is' the dust of the desert/wildness/madness [va;hshat] of Majnun. If his madness can thus spread itself so powerfully and pervasively, why wouldn't every sand-grain in the desert resemble, or contain a fraction of, the 'dark spot in the heart' of someone like him, or of a desert like his?