va;hshat agar rasaa hai be-;haa.silii adaa hai
paimaanah-e havaa hai musht-e ;Gubaar-e .sa;hraa
1) if wildness/madness is successful/'attaining', non-attainment is a fulfilment/charm
2) the measure/cup of desire/wind is a fistful of dust of the desert
va;hshat : 'A desert, solitude, dreary place; — loneliness, solitariness, dreariness; — sadness, grief, care; — wildness, fierceness, ferocity, savageness; barbarity, barbarism; — timidity, fear, fright, dread, terror, horror; — distraction, madness'. (Platts p.1183)
rasaa : 'Arriving, attaining; causing to arrive (used as last member of compounds); quick of apprehension, acute, sharp, penetrating, skilful, capable, clever; — mixing or mingling (with); amiable; well-received, welcome'. (Platts p.591)
;haa.sil : 'Acquiring, acquisition, advantage, profit, gain, good; sum, sum and substance, substance, purport, import, object'. (Platts p.473)
adaa : 'The act of bringing to completion, &c.; completion, perfection; performance; fulfilment; accomplishment'. (Platts p.31)
adaa : 'Grace, beauty; elegance; graceful manner on carriage; charm, fascination; blandishment; amorous signs and gestures, coquetry'. (Platts p.31)
paimaanah : 'A measure (for dry or wet goods); measure (of length, or capacity, &c.); ... a cup, bowl, goblet'. (Platts p.301)
havaa : 'Air, wind, gentle gale; ... — affection, favour, love, mind, desire, passionate fondness'. (Platts p.1240)
be-;haa.silii adaa = This is a construction meaning 'having taken the style [andaaz] of non-attainment'. If wildness/madness is ripe and mature, then it is hostile to every kind of attainment-- that is, property, possessions, and purposes. Even having gone into the desert, wildness/madness wants not to attain anything. In its view, the desert will be only a single handful of dust, and this handful of dust will fill the cup of the wind. The way some medicines are put into bottles for protection, in the same way for the handful of dust of the desert a bottle has been devised. This bottle is of wind. The dust will be put into the vessel of the wind.... In short, if wildness/madness is powerful, then it will cause the whole desert to be blown away.
SETS == WORDPLAY
DESERT: {3,1}
For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.
On the unusually unified and internally-rhymed structure of this ghazal, see {141x,1}.
This verse offers an elegant display of paradox and spectacular wordplay. The two quite different meanings of adaa -- the Arabic 'completion' and the Persian 'grace, charm' (see the definitions above) are both applicable; I prefer the former for its better wordplay, but Gyan Chand chooses the latter. And paimaanah , 'measure', can also be used for a glass or cup (see the definition above). Even more enjoyably, the two main meanings of havaa , 'air' and 'desire' (see the definition above), are both fully operative.
So look at that second line! It's beautiful in itself, it can be put together in a whole range of ways-- and then, the possibilities of what it can mean are also rich and fascinating. The 'fistful of dust' feels both bleak and romantic.
Zamin:
He says that if wildness is successful (that is, perfect/complete), then the desert's being non-attained is itself attainment. The proof of this is that the dust of the desert, having become a measure, keeps measuring desire/wind. The poet has said that the cause for the rising up of a dust-devil is swiftness/'wind-measuring' [baad-paimaa))ii]. The measurement is new; it's not strange if the thought of the measure of a handful of dust would have arisen from the idiom baad bah musht paimuudan ['to measure the wind in handfuls']. But there's nothing in the verse except 'wind-measuring'.
== Zamin, p. 102