Ghazal 145, Verse 10x

Zamin:

niyaaz = An offering, although this word is used to mean 'need' when paired with naz . But both are current in the common idiom with the meaning of 'offering'. tah-bandii = This is an idiom of the English. Before applying the real color they put a lightish layer/'dip'; this color is called tah-bandii .

He says that the melting of the heart became an offering to the ebullition of longing/grief-- that is, it became useful to the ebullition of longing/grief, since it melted the heart. And when it caused even the suvaida to melt, and from the melting of both a black color became available, then with it the under-coat of the cloak/veil of tamannaa was put in place. In this way tamannaa was dipped in a pot of blue-black, and colored with the color of ill-fortune. And all this was done by the hand of longing/grief. That is, ;hasrat was the giver of ill-fortune to tamannaa .

== Zamin, pp. 360-361

Gyan Chand:

Painters put down, before the actual color, a layer of another color, and this is called an 'under-coat' [tah-bandii]. Out of regard for longing/grief, we entirely melted down our heart. Thus the melted 'suvaida' is like an under-coat for the wound of the heart. The suvaida is black. This blackness was spread on the heart so that on top of it the color of the wound of the unfulfillment of longing would be able to be applied. That color for which the under-coat will be black-- how black that color (wound) itself will be!

== Gyan Chand, p. 367-368

FWP:

SETS

For background see S. R. Faruqi's choices. For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. This verse is from a different, unpublished, formally identical ghazal, {358x}, and is included for comparison. On the presentation of verses from unpublished ghazals like this one along with formally identical divan ghazals, see {145,5x}.

The black spot at the center of the heart is called the 'suvaida'; I have made it an English word, for want of a better. Here it shows another side of its versatile nature: it can be melted down into the blackest of black paint. For more on its general qualities, and other examples of its use, see {3,2}.

In general, the color of the wound in the heart is (what else?) blood-red, so that its related imagery comes from the domain of red roses and red wine and red fire (and even the red sun, as in the wonderful {62,8}). If all that brilliant, flowing redness is overlaid on the deepest black, perhaps they won't really create overtones of some kind of purple; that doesn't seem like the right outcome. Instead, perhaps the black under-coat at the heart's core will remain separate, anchoring, grounding, sustaining the radiant red of the heart's blood. It will be a contrast in the color sense, but not of course in the emotional sense. (For the very few other examples of verses about drawing or painting, see {6,1}.)

According to Zamin, such an under-coat will ensure the ill-fortune of the longing itself. According to Gyan Chand, it will enable us to guess how dark this particular heart-wound itself must be.

But it's hard to get very far with the imagery, because it remains not only hyper-abstract but also inert; the verse doesn't really do anything coherent with it.