chaar-suu-e dahr me;N baazaar-e ;Gaflat garm hai
((aql ke nuqsaa;N se u;Thtaa hai ;xayaal-e intifaa((
1) in the four-directions of the world, the market of/for heedlessness is 'hot'
2) from the loss/harm of intellect arises the thought of profit/benefit
chauk : 'A quadrangle; a square; a court-yard; an open place in a town where the market is held (and where also the chief of the police-office is stationed); a daily market; the main street or central thoroughfare of a city'. (Platts p.452)
;Gaflat : 'Unmindfulness, forgetfulness, neglectfulness, negligence, neglect, inattention, heedlessness, inadvertence, remissness, carelessness'. (Platts p.771)
((aql : 'Intelligence, wisdom, sense, understanding, intellect, mind, reason, knowledge'. (Platts p.763)
nuqsaa;N : 'Defect; deficiency; loss; waste; detriment, injury, harm, damage; blemish; prejudice; mischief'. (Platts p.1146)
intifaa(( : 'Being benefited, deriving advantage; profit, advantage'. (Platts p.87)
chaar suu = chauk baazaar . ((aql kii nuq.saan = a lack/shortage of intellect
That is, in the bazaar of the world there is a 'hot market' in heedlessness because where there is a deficiency of intellect, there the thought of profit has kept departing.
In the world, in every direction heedlessness has free rein. People are not making use of intellect. In the 'loss of intellect'-- that is, in unintelligent/unwise ideas-- they consider there to be profit. From what ground does the 'thought of profit' grow? From unintelligence/unwisdom, and this is short-sightedness.
SETS == IZAFAT
COMMERCE: {3,3}
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 For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}.
I was wondering why there were only 'four directions' here, when Ghalib usually likes to have six (by including up and down), as for example in {41,4}. But then Zamin helpfully identified the (Persian) 'four directions' as chauk baazaar (see the definition above). Many North Indian cities have a market called Chauk, based on the idea of four corners and/or a crossroads, which can also suggest a kind of 'main street' market.
The verse makes a truly enjoyable use of i.zaafat constructions (and the ke ). First of all, what happens in a baazaar-e ;Gafla:t , a market 'of' heedlessness? Is 'heedlessness' a form of merchandise? Is it a characteristic of the merchants? Or is it like a dark cloud that envelops the whole area and everything that happens there?
And then, there are several ways-- all of them bleak-- to read the second line:
=Because people have suffered a loss of intellect, they heedlessly think they are acting profitably when they are not.
=Only because of a loss of intellect do people think there even exists such a thing as 'profit'; this is their heedlessness.
=Because of the harm done by intellect/knowledge (as in the bitter {201,8}), people decide they would be better off with heedlessness.
Asi:
That is, in every corner of the world the bazaar of heedlessness is 'hot', and the people of the world/age are heedless. These wretches don't understand that the reality of the thought of profit is only this much: that in this age, because of the harm of intellect, it arises. Beyond this, it has no existence.
== Asi, p. 139