Ghazal 267x, Verse 4

{267x,4}*

muhr bajā-e nāmah lagāʾī par lab-e pīk-e nāmah-rasāñ
qātil-e tamkīñ-sanj ne yūñ ḳhāmoshī kā paiġhām kiyā

1) instead of a letter, she applied a seal on the pallid lip of the Messenger/'letter-conveyer'
2) the dignity-measuring slayer, in this way, sent a message of silence

Notes:

rasāñ : 'Causing to arrive, conveying, bearing; — one who conveys, bearer (used as last member of compounds)'. (Platts p.591)

 

tamkīñ : 'Gravity, dignity, majesty, grandeur, greatness, authority, power'. (Platts p.337)

 

sanj : 'Weighing, measuring; — weigher, measurer; examiner (used as last member of compounds)'. (Platts p.681)

Asi:

To my Messenger she didn't give a letter, but she pressed a seal on his lips. Through this gesture, the dignity-testing murderer sent, so to speak, a message of remaining silent.

== Asi, pp. 80-81

Gyan Chand:

tamkīñ-sanj = majestic/imposing. The Messenger, taking my letter, went to the beloved's place. She ought to have written a letter in reply, applied a seal to it, and given it to him. She didn't write a letter; on the Messenger's lips she applied a seal with sealing-wax/'lac' [lākh]. In this was a sign that in the future I should neither write anything and send it to her, nor send her any oral message. That was a very witty [ḳhvush-mażāq] beloved.

== Gyan Chand, p. 147

FWP:

SETS == HUMOR
WRITING: {7,3}

For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.

On the nature and use of seals, see {61,5}. Perhaps the cruel beloved indeed used hot melted sealing-wax for her little pleasantry, as Gyan Chand maintains; if so, it's no wonder that the poor Messenger's lips were pallid or pale (I'm reading pīk as a variant of phīkā ), like the paper to which the seal ought properly to have been applied.

She sent the Messenger back with swollen or burnt lips-- it's almost like a warning from the Mafia! No doubt she wanted to enforce her 'dignity' or 'imposingness'. But as Gyan Chand also notes, she did find a very 'witty' way of replying to what was no doubt a long and tedious screed.

Note for grammar fans: To have the par before its clause, instead of after it, is archaic and Persianized ( like baġhair us ke instead of us ke baġhair ). It's almost never done with Indic postpositions. But whatever Ghalib wants, Ghalib gets.


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