Ghazal 312x, Verse 5

{312x,5}*

yih aatish-e ham-saayah kahii;N ghar nah jalaa de
kii hai dil-e sozaa;N ne mire pahluu me;N jaa garm

1) may this neighboring fire not somehow burn the house!
2) the burning heart has, at/in my side, 'warmed a place' for itself

Notes:

ham-saayah : ''Under the same shade,' neighbouring; — a neighbour'. (Platts p.1234)

 

garm : 'Hot, warm; in a state of heat; burning; glowing: fervid; ardent, zealous, fervent; excited; eager, intent on'. (Platts p.905)

Gyan Chand:

jaa garm karnaa = To take a fixed place; that is, to come and sit down for a long period. pahluu me;N jaa garm karnaa = For someone to come and sit down at one's side, and to remain seated for the future.

The fire-kindling heart has taken up residence at/in my side. May this fire of the neighbor's not somehow burn my house! If a fire starts next door, then my house too is in serious danger. Here the poet has declared the burning heart to be his neighbor, separate from his own existence.

== Gyan Chand, p. 538

FWP:

SETS == IDIOMS

For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}.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

As so often, the first line is very general and vague; we can't at all tell what is going on. Under mushairah performance conditions, of course, we'd be kept in suspense for a bit.

Even when we heard the second line, not until the end would we realize that the place of honor (the last possible position) had been given to a fine idiom, jaa garm karnaa . And the pleasure would be enhanced by the realization that as usual Ghalib had used it in both its idiomatic sense ('to establish oneself in a place') and its literal sense ('to make a place warm/hot').

Compare {138,4}, which plays more effectively with the same idiom.