FWP:
SETS == IDIOMS; WORDPLAY
ROAD: {10,12}
For background see S. R. Faruqi's choices. This verse is NOT one of his choices; I have added it because Ghalib himself chose it for inclusion in . For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}.
Zamin points out the idiom-based wordplay that's really the chief feature of the verse. For qa:trah-zan in Persian literally means 'drop-striking' or 'drop-striker', so that the phrase idiomatically describes a person who is running hard, and thus 'rains down' (see the definitions above) drops of sweat as he goes. If such a runner is also shedding tears, does that mean he's doubly a 'drop-rainer'? Perhaps that's pushing it too far, but we can enjoy the juxtaposition of the sweat-drops that testify to the runner's speed, with the tear-drops that testify to his lostness-- a juxtaposition that offers both wordplay and meaning-play.
The verse invites a Sufistic reading, for sorrow and despair in this finite worldly life (with its 'day and night') can be stages on a pilgrim's spiritual journey. A path defined and guided by an endless string of tears may in fact be the only one that can finally take the mystical seeker to his destination.
Zamin:
We run around in the valley of longing [Zamin's text has bah vaadii-e ;hasrat], we pay no heed to day or night, we have become drenched in sweat, but are making the rounds-- perhaps in some direction some road might become visible. But there, where is there a road?! There is longing, there is weeping, and there's a thread/string of tears. Because of the abundance of the tears, he has given to the thread/string of them the simile of a path to the destination, and for wordplay with tears he has said qa:trah-zan . It's a witticism!
== Zamin, p. 80