((iyaadat'haa-e :ta((n-aaluud-e yaaraa;N zahr-e qaatil hai
rafuu-e za;xm kartii hai bah nok-e nesh-e ((aqrab'haa
1) the reproach-polluted visitation by the friends is murderous poison
2) it stitches up the wound with the point of the sting of scorpions
((iyaadat : 'Visiting (of the sick)'. (Platts p.767)
:ta((n : 'Blame, reproach, chiding, taunting, taunt, reviling, ridicule, scoff, gibe, derision; ignominy, disgrace; aspersion'. (Platts p.752)
qaatil : 'Killing; mortal, deadly, fatal; — a homicide, murderer, an assassin; an executioner'. (Platts p.786)
He says that if I would show to a physician the poison-polluted wound from the hand of the beloved, then the Advisor (the physician) would stitch it up, but with the sting of a scorpion, and even more poison would spread through the body. This is because having received a wound from the hand of the beloved, to seek a cure for it is contrary to the fortitude and steadfastness of passion.
== Zamin, p. 92
People who have ill-feeling/'dust' in their hearts-- when they go to visit a sick person, then they also utter reproaches.... If they would go to visit some lover, then they would say, 'Did we not tell you not to fall into the clutches of girls? They don't care about you-- you've been a fool, and have come to be in this condition!'. This kind of visit is as deadly as a murderous poison. Such sympathizers, so to speak, do stitch up the wound, but with the sting of a scorpion, in which there's both pain and poison.
For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.
Zamin takes zahr-e qaatil to refer to 'poison of the murderer'-- that is, poison administered by the beloved. But that reading simply doesn't work with the grammar of the first line. It's much better to read qaatil as 'murderous, deadly' (see the definition above).
The verse is energized by the fine vigorous image of the nok-e nesh-e ((aqrab'haa , which also has good punchy sound effects. Characteristically, it's withheld till the last possible moment, the very end of the second line. The plural 'scorpions' also makes it clear that the stitching-up or darning is done not simply with the sting of a single scorpion, but in a deadly way that concentrates the venom from a number of them.
Asi:
When my comrades come to visit me and reproach me, or there is mixed into their visitation a kind of hypocrisy, that acts as a murderous poison. A likeness [mi;saal] of it is that the visitation stitches up the wound, but with the point of the sting of a scorpion, which is a cause of even greater suffering.
== Asi, p. 73