shikvah-e yārāñ ġhubār-e dil meñ pinhāñ kar diyā
ġhālib aise ganj ko shāyāñ yihī vīrānah thā
1) the complaint of the friends, I hid in the dust of the heart
2) Ghalib, worthy of such a treasure/hoard was-- only/emphatically this desolation
ġhubār : 'Dust; clouds of dust; a dust-storm; vapour, fog, mist, mistiness; impurity, foulness; (met.) vexation, soreness, ill-feeling, rancour, spite; affliction, grief; perplexity'. (Platts p.769)
ganj : 'A store, hoard; treasure; hidden treasure; a treasury'. (Platts p.917)
shāyān : 'Proper, fit, suitable; worthy; desirable; agreeable; lawful, legal, allowed, permitted'. (Platts p.720)
vīrānah : 'A desolate place; a place full of ruins; a solitude; — a waste; forest-land'. (Platts p.1209)
We have complaints against the friends, but we did not express them. Toward the friends a single/particular light-ish vexation was created in the heart, and that was all. With this feeling, we buried the complaints. The dust-filled heart has a similitude with a desolation, and the complaint against the friends is a treasure. It's customary to bury a treasure in a desolate place. For our treasure, just such a desolation was fitting.
SETS == HI
For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.
Thanks to the versatility of the iẓāfat , the complaint 'of' the friends could be either one made about them (the speaker resents their behavior), or one made by them (they reproach the speaker for his behavior). In the present verse, it hardly seems to matter which. The point is that i a complaint is to be 'buried', then the no doubt ample 'dust' in the speaker's heart is-- both literally and metaphorically (see the definition above)-- an excellent place.
The second line thus becomes irresistibly sarcastic, since it not only refers to the heap of resentments as a 'treasure', but also identifies it as 'such' a treasure-- a treasure for which no 'desolation' except that of the heart could be desolate enough (bleak enough? remote enough? dusty enough?) to offer an appropriate burial place. It's really the yihī that does the trick.
For another enjoyable exploration of degrees of vīrānī , see {35,8}.
Asi:
I have concealed the complaint of the friends in the dust of the heart. Oh Ghalib, in truth this was a single/particular/unique/excellent ruin, and in reality there was even/also a need for just such a desolation.
== Asi, p. 79