FWP:
SETS == WORDPLAY
ROAD: {10,12}
Why can't our foot or footstep rise up? Two possible reasons seem to be proposed:
=Because it's already at the destination, since it is in love with laggingness and/or laggingness is in love with it, and only the place where the beloved is can be the lover's true destination; so that where 'laggingness' is, is where the foot should be.
=Because it's being detained on the road to the destination, by its love for laggingness and/or laggingness's love for it.
Nazm and Bekhud Mohani twist themselves into knots to explain vaa-maa;Ndagii ko ((ishq hai ; Bekhud Dihlavi awkwardly personifies a 'Laggingness' that has developed a passionate love for the speaker. Surprisingly, none of them seem to notice the idiomatic phrase ((ishq hai (see the definition above). Faruqi too notes in M{480,4}, 'The phrase ((ishq hai is an idiom, with the meaning of 'bravo' or 'praise be' [aafiriin hai]'. For another example of its usage, see {251x,5}.
For in fact the real complexities center on qadam . Since it comes from the Arabic root q-d-m , which means 'going before' (Platts p.789), it has its own enjoyable wordplay with 'lagging'. And its meanings include 'foot'-- something that would definitely be expected to rise up-- but also, through 'footstep', veer toward the idea of 'footprint'-- something that would never be expected to rise up, but would by definition always be 'lagging' or left behind.
This latter sense emerges clearly in {123,1}, in which the 'ground-kissing of the footstep' is part of the lover's literal collapse and prostration on the ground. Compare also {116,8}, in which the behavior of the footprint [naqsh-e paa] is a guide for the lover's own behavior. And this sense of 'footprint' becomes a perfect lover and/or beloved for 'laggingness' to have, since the two are inseparable by definition. Arshi cites {11,1}, another very abstract verse in which the footprint [naqsh-e qadam] is compared to a bubble.
So there we have it. One can assemble all the parts, and enjoy all the wordplay. But behind it there's not as rich a network of meanings as in his truly great verses. I don't consider this one as problematic as the previous one, {157,4}, but it's certainly far from the top of Ghalib's game. This one reminds me in fact of {8,2}, in its ostentatious metaphysicality with no real world of meaning behind it.
Compare the much more successful {190,1}.
Nazm:
In this verse it seems that to put ko in place of kaa is an error of the calligrapher [kaatib], and in this case the meaning is clear. But it wouldn't be strange if he had composed ko itself, because then the meaning will be a bit more elaborate. That is, fatigue has come to have a passion for my footstep, and doesn't release it so that I might go toward the desired destination. In the verse the author has intended by 'destination' the 'road to the destination'; the word 'in' proves this. That is, in the idiom, when people say it with 'in', they mean the 'road to the destination'; and when they say it with 'to', they mean the destination itself.
And in the idiom of the Persian-speakers ((ishq means 'peace and acceptance' [salaam-o-niyaaz], and in that case ko is correct. That is, we accept fatigue, and thanks to it our footstep which is in the road cannot be lifted. (169)
== Nazm page 169