FWP:
SETS == AUR; POETRY; REPETITION == TRANSLATABLES
SOUND EFFECTS: {26,7}
Ah, but the big question: who is, or are, the 'they' [vuh], the 'them' [un]? The pronoun is plural, and the verbs mark it as masculine. But plural pronouns and verbs are routinely used in Urdu to show respect, and as we know, the beloved in the classical ghazal is always construed as grammatically masculine, even if envisioned as a woman. The 'they' could therefore be: a group of men and/or women; or an honored individual man or woman.
Hali notes the two main choices: the 'they' could be the ignorant poetry-consuming public of Ghalib's time, or the (honorifically labeled) beloved. The former are suitable candidates because, as Hali also notes, Ghalib's verse was so often criticized as 'difficult' or even 'meaningless'. The latter is a suitable candidate because, needless to say, she's the one hardest to reach-- and the one the lover most wants to reach. This verse neatly brings together the poet's literary concerns and the lover's romantic longings.
In either case, the problem seems to be insensitivity, indifference, or hostility, not mere stupidity or literary ineptitude. For the speaker prays that 'they' will be given not a new head or mind or ear, but a new 'heart'. The request is that either God should change 'them', or he should change the speaker himself, providing a new 'tongue', instead of, or in addition to, the old one.
Without such divine intervention, the situation is clearly hopeless. The speaker can't change his own baat -- words, ideas, expression-- or his own language [zabaan]. If a humble poet framed this verse, we might expect that he was asking God to improve his defective powers of communication. But this is (implicitly) Ghalib, after all-- he knows that his baat and zabaan are already almost too lofty for 'them' to understand, and any change would represent an intolerable deterioration. So it's a kind of stalemate, such that only God can step in and resolve it.
The first line has two occurrences of nah , and samjhe / samjhe;N , which sets us up for an even more thoughtfully rhythmic second line full of fine sound effects and word-repetitions. The second line offers two each of de , ko , and aur , and the elegantly rhymed placement of ko jo, right in the semantic middle of the line. It's the kind of verse that's particularly fun to say out loud. And all the repetitions help convey a sense of exasperation-- oh Lord, so many times I've said it, and 'they' still don't understand!
For another view of the lover's alienation from those around
him, see {113,7}.
Hali:
This verse outwardly seems to be about the beloved, but concealed within it is also a reference to those people who used to call Mirza's poetry meaningless or difficult to understand.
==Urdu text: Yadgar-e Ghalib, p. 144