Ghazal 69, Verse 3x

Zamin:

That is, the madman roams and wanders around in the foothills of the mountains; it's as if while in the seclusion of the stone he has a longing for lamentation. That is, for the madman it's also a necessary for wantonness and passion that boys would follow after him and would go on throwing stones; he feels grief at their not being there.

This is the exposition; as for the construction of the verse-- well, it is what it is.

== Zamin, p. 191

Gyan Chand:

daa;G-e a:tfaal hai diivaanah can mean that the madman causes a wound on the hearts of the children; it can also mean that on the madman's heart, because of the children's not being there, is a wound. It is not clear why the madman has gone to wander idly in the hills. In any case, this is a description of the time when as yet boys have not thrown stones at the madman, and he has not yet lamented.

The madman is in the hills; in the city, through his non-presence the boys are suffering the wound of longing-- that they won't be able to throw stones at him; or the madman himself is feeling the lack of the boys-- that he won't be able to obtain the relish of being struck by stones. The lament in the seclusion of the stone is seeking/desirous-- that they would strike the madman's head with stones, so that there would be an occasion for the issuing of a lament.

== Gyan Chand, p. 215

FWP:

SETS == IZAFAT
MADNESS: {14,3}

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 For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}.

As Gyan Chand notes, it's not clear in the first line who experiences the 'wound'-- whether it's the children (the more straightforward reading), or the madman himself (who then, grammatically speaking, 'is' a wound).

But that second line is mysteriously powerful-- melancholy, haunting, even mystical. It has the force of a destiny that is slowly beginning to stir and grow, long before it will actually enter the world. Most strikingly (sorry, sorry!), the nascent lament is located not in the speaker/lover at all, but in the (as yet unthrown) stone itself. The effect is to make the whole process feel ineluctable-- the process of stone-throwing, the head being struck, lamentation, suffering, the pleasure of pain. Fate has prearranged it, and the natural world itself, in the form of the stones, has collaborated.

The involvement of the natural world echoes {120,6}, in which iron in the mine quivers restlessly at the thought of chains being made for the madman's feet.

For more verses about stone-throwing, see {35,10}.