FWP:
SETS == DIALOGUE; PARALLELISM
GATHERINGS: {6,3}
LIGHTNING: {10,6}
SMILE/LAUGHTER: {27,4}
For background see S. R. Faruqi's choices. For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. Ghalib chose this verse for inclusion in .
The simile of the rain as tears, and thus of the rainclouds as weeping, is obvious. That of lightning as smiling or laughing (since ha;Nsnaa has both meanings) is based on the flash of brilliant white teeth as they are suddenly visible in a smile or laugh. (And of course, the sight of the beloved's teeth dazzles the lover's eyes as lightning does.)
These brilliant white teeth should also be imagined as flashing against a suitably dramatic background of blackened gums, since the use of missii ('a powder composed of yellow myrobalan, gall-nut, iron-filings, vitriol, &c., used for tingeing the teeth of a black colour', Platts p.1036) was very common in Ghalib's world. Admirers of Umra'o Jan may remember that the ceremony through which a :tavaa))if formally entered the profession was called missii lagaanaa . For more on missii , see {417x,2}.
Compare {212,1}, another verse involving a smile/laugh and a show of teeth.
Gyan Chand:
The raining-down of clouds has the similitude of weeping, and the cause of the weeping is restlessness: there is the wish for a gathering of happiness. The way a child weeps in order to cause some desire to be fulfilled, in the same way the clouds are weeping and insisting. The flash of lightning has the similitude of smiling/laughing, but it is momentary. The lightning flashes as if it is smiling/laughing at the clouds' request: 'How small is the interval of life! How would a gathering be able to be arranged in an instant?!'
== Gyan Chand, p. 492