Ghazal 284x, Verse 3

Asi:

There is no star of our fortune other than smoke-filled crevice-work. If there would be access to smoke-filled crevice-work, then fate would be radiant. This thought of the circle of the curl, which has become the circle of our madness-producing eyes-- how long will it be effective, and until when will it accompany us?

== Asi, p. 113

Zamin:

That is, the state of the star of fortune is like that if the holes in a wall would be filled with nothing but smoke. Then, how long will the eyeglasses of the circles of the beloved's curls remain perched on the eye of madness?

The gist is that there's no sight, the star of your fate is dark (that is, you would be ill-fortuned), and over the beloved's face the veil of her curls has fallen; to stare intently from within the circles of the veil of curls, and to desire the sight of beauty, is madness.

== Zamin, p. 161

Gyan Chand:

The star of my fortune is as if there would be some hole full of black smoke. That is, the fortune is dark. In a hole, smoke is usually like a twisting line. That is, to some extent it has a similitude to a curl. In madness, we look at the beloved's circles of curls, and we see them to the extent that we have made them into eyeglasses for the beloved's eyes. How long would we keep doing such a thing? These circles of curls will not be available to me to touch. In my fortune is only a wave of smoke, so what's the benefit of keeping on staring at the curls of beautiful ones?

== Gyan Chand, pp.199-200

FWP:

SETS
CURLS: {14,6}
EYES {3,1}
MADNESS: {14,3}

For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}.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

On the nature of a rauzan , or 'crevice-work', see {64,4}.

Here's one of many verses with no finite verbs. We can comfortably equip the nahii;N in the first line with an implied hai , but in the second line we have to make our own choices about how to connect the three independent clauses.

The first line gives us a picture of murky, dim, unreliable vision. Ghalib is fond of using the seeming brightness of the sky, as seen through the ventilation crevice-work high in the wall, as a proof of the darkness of the chamber inside; for discussion and examples see {64,4}. The lover in his dark chamber not only can't see the real 'stars' (if any) of his fortune-- he can't even see the illusory brightness of the sky, because what he sees is like 'smoke-filled' crevice-work.

Then the second line gives us 'the eyeglasses of the eye of madness', and 'the circle of a curl', and asks, rhetorically, 'how long?'. So are the (round) eyeglasses and the (circular) curl the same thing (so that the lover sees the world only through the lens of a curl)? Or are they being juxtaposed oppositionally (how long can the madness of equating them continue?) Or are they how or what the lover thinks he sees, through the smoke-filled crevice-work of his ill-fortune? Or are they things that he fears soon to lose, through the dimness of his ominous stars ('how long?'). We have no choice but to make our own choices.

In any case, what I really enjoy about this verse is the idea of the mad lover as wearing glasses! Even though they are the glasses of the 'eye of madness', the idea still sounds rather too sensible and rational for the lover to be bothering with. This is the first time I've ever encountered glasses in the ghazal world. There must be other examples here and there, I imagine; but not so many. As a glasses-wearer myself, I enjoy feeling a certain kinship with the glasses-wearing lover. (Does he have to clean them from time to time?)

Note for translation fans: It's really fascinating how ambiguous ((ainak becomes in translation. If we go with 'glasses', any ghazal reader would think at once of wineglasses. And if we go with 'spectacles', any ghazal reader would at once think of a tamaashaa or two. That's why I ended up with 'eyeglasses'.