Ghazal 299x, Verse 3

Asi:

Since the radiance of the face of the friend/beloved has made it amazed, and for this reason it has become useless, now the sun inside a drop of dew seems as if it is a candle hidden in the veil of a glass-shade.

== Asi, p. 135

Zamin:

That is, having looked at the face of the beloved, the sun became so amazed that it went and hid in a drop of dew, the way a candle hides its face in a glass-shade. The reflection of the sun, the candle; the drop of dew, the glass-shade. It's an extremely eloquent simile. In the first line az-baskih hai;N be-kaar is quite sufficiently useless [az-baskih be-kaar].

== Zamin, p. 199

Gyan Chand:

Who are useless? Asi and Sandelvi have given only the sun as the subject, but since instead of hai there's hai;N , it's clear that the reference is to more than one thing. In fact, it has been said of both sun and candle. 'Oh beloved, having seen your glory/appearance have both gone pallid with amazement. The candle has become hidden in the glass-shade, and in imitation of it the sun has hidden in a drop of dew.'

== Gyan Chand, p. 227

FWP:

SETS
CANDLE: {39,1}
GRANDIOSITY: {5,3}
JALVAH: {7,4}
SUN: {10,5}

For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}.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

On the special quality of ;hairat , see {51,9x}. And on the nature of a faanuus , see {39,1}.

The verse is set up so cleverly that the second line can be taken as a fine simile in its own right. That's how anyone would initially take it-- and how both Asi and Zamin do take it. But Gyan Chand is of course right about the plural verb in the first line-- it means that the reference must be to both sun and candle. So the sun's behavior resembles the candle's not only as a simile, but also because they're both having the same frightening experience.

It's especially piquant to think of the sun as being 'in' a dewdrop in the sense of hiding in it. The ghazal world is full of accounts of how the mighty sun graciously illumines every humble sand-grain and dewdrop. But for the huge, mighty sun to hide itself within a single dewdrop, in its eagerness to be partially shielded from the intensity of the beloved's radiance, is a reversal that's somehow both logical (since dewdrops in fact glitter as though they had the sun inside them) and unimaginable.

The word be-kaar too works enjoyably for the sun and the candle, since its two senses of 'useless' (no one needs their light when the beloved is around) and 'unemployed' (they're out of a job) are both fully applicable.