jalvah : 'Manifestation, publicity, conspicuousness; splendour, lustre, effulgence'. (Platts p.387)
parastaar : 'Adorer, worshipper; servant, slave'. (Platts p.248)
He says that in lovers' pillows are peacocks' feathers, so that when they put their heads on those feathers and sleep, then a radiant beauty comes before their vision, the way in Zulaikha's dream the verdancy of Joseph was ebullient [Zamin's text has na:zar josh-e zulai;xaa].... In any case, in the form of the verse whether the meaning would be clear or not, the lofty harmony of the 'promising Ghalib' is certainly evident.
Before her marriage, Zulaikha had on three occasions seen Hazrat Joseph in a dream. When she arose in the morning, there was discussion among her maidens of her afflicted condition. The poet says, what kind of glory came into Zulaikha's dream and took her into servitude, such that even now lovers are in that same condition-- they too in dreams see the colorful glory of beautiful ones?
For Ghalib, the peacock is an emblem of fine-coloredness. Pillows are filled with feathers. Lovers' pillows are filled with peacocks' feathers-- that is, when lovers sleep they see colorful dreams.
SETS
DREAMS: {3,3}
JALVAH: {7,4}
For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.
For discussion of Zulaikha's dreams, see {194,5}.
The subject of the first line should apparently be the peacock. Perhaps the peacock, himself an emblem of brilliantly iridescent colorfulness, somehow felt the far more dazzling presence of Joseph as Zulaikha did when she had her dazzling, overpowering dreams of him (see {194,5}). Perhaps this was possible because some of the peacock's feathers were in Zulaikha's pillow, so that he (mystically?) shared in her dream. After such an experience, it wouldn't be strange for him to become her 'adorer' or 'slave' (see the definition of parastaar above). (After all, when the beloved merely walked in the garden, her stature 'enslaved' the cypress, as we learn in M{7,11}.)
Perhaps the peacock worships the dream-power of Zulaikha, and longs to repeat such a climactic experience-- so that his feathers are in the pillows not only of Zulaikha, but of all the other 'heart-burnt' lovers as well.
In addition, perhaps the idea of the powerful, radiant bird is meant to remind us of the Simurgh in the Shah-namah, and the crucial potency of her three golden feathers.
It could also be that the subject of the first line is not the peacock, but the 'pillow', construed as a sort of repository of (dazzling, radiant, burning) dreams-- one that safeguards the talisman of the powerful, radiant feather.
I am reading jalvah-parastaar as a 'reversed i.zaafat '. But no matter how we slice and dice it, the grammar of the first line leaves something to be desired.
Asi:
That is, in dream/sleep what glory or fervor of vision [Asi's text has na:zar josh-e zulai;xaa] did Zulaikha show, that until today the pillows of the heart-burned ones are filled with peacocks' feathers?! Or else this: what glory did she see, that she roused her vision to fervor? Or else this: in the pillows of those mad with passion, and those with hearts burnt by grief are peacocks' feathers; among them too there will be some such glory. Or else this: in the pillows of the heart-burnt ones are peacocks' feathers, in which are many colors, and their vision is not roused to fervor; what glory had absorbed Zulaikha, such that in a dream she became mad?
== Asi, pp. 134-135