Ghazal 163, Verse 4

Hali:

baadah-e doshiinah , that is, wine drunk last night, which he had drunk before dying. Only by way of mischievousness he says that there is no device for escaping the interrogation of the two recording angels except this: that he should die having drunk wine, so that the two recording angels, averse to its smell, should leave without interrogating him.

==Urdu text: Yadgar-e Ghalib, pp. 157-58

Nazm:

By way of a joke he's said they will run away [bhaage;Nge]; the meaning is that [more colloquially] they will run away [bhaag jaa))e;Nge]. And baadah-e doshiinah is the 'wine of last night'. In the idiom, people use bo , pronounced with an o , to mean 'bad smell' [badbuu]. The theme of a bad smell coming from the mouth was not worthy of being used in poetry. (176)

== Nazm page 176

Bekhud Mohani:

In a rakish humor he has said it, and has said something new. Munkar and Nakir are those two angels who, according to the Muslims' belief, come into the grave of every dead person and ask some questions. It's obvious-- how would Munkar and Nakir feel anxious and run away from my grave? But indeed-- there's one situation-- if from my mouth comes the smell of the wine drunk last night, then because they're pious, they'll become anxious and run away. If there's any situation for escaping from them, then this alone is it.

[In response to Nazm's criticism:] Mirza has said, along with 'smell', 'smell of last night's wine'. He hasn't spoken only of a smell from the mouth. But other elders have said not merely this much, but more as well. The late Shaikh Nasikh:

aap apne ((aib se vaaqif nahii;N hotaa ko))ii
jaise buu apne dahan kii aatii hai kam naak me;N

[no one is himself acquainted with his own fault
the way a smell from one's own mouth comes very little into the nose]

[Or:] That in the grave the Recording Angels wouldn't ask questions-- there's no other situation except that from our mouth would come the perfume of the wine of the divine presence [baadah-e alast]. That is, when they perceive that the perfume of the wine of the divine presence is still in our mouth, and that we've spent our whole life in divine intoxication, they'll say 'Why have we come? Let's go, there's no need to ask him anything'. (316)

FWP:

SETS == A,B; HUMOR; MAGAR
WINE: {49,1}

How cleverly and amusingly Ghalib creates his effects! The first line offers us two very clear, very colloquial readings that are direct opposites of each other. He doesn't, in this verse, even deign to use any of the interrogatives like kyaa that are so conducive to such effects. If we take the first line as a short exclamation followed by a question (1a), the Recording Angels surely will flee; if we take it as one long single sentence (1b), they will definitely not flee.

Then in the second line, the creative use of magar (along with the colloquially exclamatory 'indeed!' [haa;N]) also generates two readinges. If we take magar as 'perhaps', the result is a kind of embarrassed, vaguely apologetic recognition (2a) that the speaker might have the smell of wine on his breath; if we take it as 'but' (2b), the information is presented with a flourish, so that it's connected in some strong logical or other way with the first line.

It seems to me that in this classic 'A,B' verse, all of the four permutations work:

=(1a) plus (2a): 'Oh how embarrassing, I must have made a social gaffe with my wine-breath and offended the Recording Angels-- naturally they've run off'.

=(1a) plus (2b): 'I have a great plan for chasing away the Recording Angels! It's obvious that this will drive them off: I'll just arrange for my mouth to smell of wine.'

=(1b) plus (2a):'The Recording Angels are tough and determined, nothing will discourage them-- not even if, indeed, my breath smells of wine.'

=(1b) plus (2b): 'The Recording Angels are tough and determined, nothing will discourage them! But wait-- there's one last hope-- what if my mouth might smell of wine?'

Among these alternatives, the second and fourth (which the commentators understandably prefer), have the additional enjoyable feature that the plan requires the speaker to drink wine every night as a precaution, so that in case he dies suddenly, he'll be prepared!