FWP:
SETS == POETRY
JAUHAR: {5,4}
MIRROR: {8,3}
ABOUT PARROTS AND MIRRORS: In the ghazal world, parrots are often
associated with mirrors, apparently because mirrors were used to teach parrots
to talk; the process is discussed by Gyan Chand in {9,8x}, {41,9x}, {104,3x}, and {217,10x}. And perhaps also a
parrot 'reflects' human speech the way a mirror reflects human faces? Dalpat Rajpurohit says (Mar. 2013) that he's always been told that mirrors can be used to dazzle wild parrots into immobility, so that they can be captured. More
parrot-and-mirror verses: {9,8x}; {29,2};
{29,6x}; {41,9x};
{60,10}; {88,7x}; {104,3x}; {128,1};
{173,5}; [{217,10x}] // {297x,2}; {308x,6}; {355x,1}; {434x,3}.
The verb baa;Ndhnaa , literally 'to
bind', has a related sense of 'to incorporate into a line of poetry', Since
the refrain is baa;Ndhaa , this whole ghazal is full of chances to declare that various things
were 'set in a verse as' other things. The audience must in fact have been
surprised and amused that the opening-verse did not make use
of this opportunity; now this verse does; the next verse does so only secondarily;
and then the closing-verse does: {29,4}. For more examples see {29,5x}; {29,6x}; {29,9x}. For another whole ghazal of this kind, see {108},
with refrain baa;Ndhte
hai;N .
Anyway, here is Ghalib being, surely self-consciously, 'Ghalibian'. Parrots and mirrors tend to bring out the best (or worst?) in him. The verse is so heavy-handedly esoteric: you have to know a lot about ghazal conventions to get it, and when you have gotten it (more or less), apart from a display of technical skill there's not that much 'there' there.
I think the idea is that an 'amazement-chamber' (on the special nature of ;hairat see {51,9x}) is something
like a carnival 'fun-house'-- something full of distorting, disorienting,
shocking novelties for the spectator's amusement. The 'people of vision',
in a fun-house generated by the 'mischievousness of coquetry', become confused
and disoriented, so that in their poetry they depict the polish-marks on a mrror as
a 'wounded/slaughtered parrot'. Yet they are still called 'people of vision'-- does
that become a satirical epithet that in their folly they no longer deserve?
Or does that epithet reflect a deeper insight about the disorienting power of
the beloved's beauty? Or are they in fact just poets skilfully and luckily
coming up with a new and suitably extravagant metaphor?
Nazm:
People use for the greenness of a garden, of a beard [sabzah-e ;xa:t], of verdigris, and of a tempered sword [jauhar], the simile of a parrot. And the greenness of the polish-marks on an iron mirror is not established in every way. For this reason he's used for it the simile of a wounded parrot: because there seems to be movement in it, and the simile of the movement of the moving one, in which the reason for the similitude would be itself be movement, is extremely subtle and rare.
In short, in his iron mirror the greenness of the polish-marks, which is shown in various aspects, is a wounded parrot. The mischievousness of coquetry that has wounded it is the kind of simile for agitation and restlessness of heart that is in the previous verse [{29,1}] as well. (30)
== Nazm page 30