rasiidan gul-e baa;G-e vaa-maa;Ndagii hai
((aba;s ma;hmil-aaraa-e raftaar hai;N ham
1) arrival/attainment is a rose of the garden of fatigue/lagging
2) vainly/fruitlessly we occupy/'adorn' the camel-litter of movement
rasiidan : 'To arrive, attain; to be accomplished, perfected, finished; to ripen, mature, mellow'. (Steingass p.577)
vaa-maa;Ndagii : 'The remaining or lagging behind (esp. from fatigue); — openness; exposure'. (Platts p.1177)
((aba;s : 'Trifling, frivolous; vain, idle, absurd, nugatory, profitless, bootless; — in vain, uselessly, bootlessly, idly, absurdly'. (Platts p.758)
ma;hmil : 'That by which anything is supported, that in (or on) which anything is borne; that which carries the double load of a camel, a camel's saddle; a camel litter or dorser (in which women travel)'. (Platts p.1010
He has called lagging/fatigue a 'garden', and 'arrival' a flower of that garden; the flower of springtime is obtained. The meaning is that even having arrived at the halting-place, there is the same 'lying fallen' that there was before the resolve to travel.
To arrive at the halting-place is a flower of the garden of tiredness. That is, it produces tiredness, or is the extremity of tiredness. Then, we are uselessly absorbed in movement. That task of which the result would be tiredness, what good is it?
In the first line there can also be this subtle meaning: that having arrived at the halting-place, to pause/halt is a kind of tiredness. When tired, a person flinches away from moving. There will be complete cessation of movement, complete lagging/fatigue. Thus the heat of movement is useless. In this interpretation by movement, life is intended; and by arrival, death.
For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.
On the nature of a mahmil , see {147,7x}.
Oh, that first line is a killer! 'Arrival is a rose of the garden of fatigue'. The sense of 'arrival' (or 'achievement'; see the definition above) is a secondary product, an 'emergent property' perhaps, of fatigue, or lagging, or some kind of languour. The claim of 'arrival' is beautiful, vulnerable, full of pathos, like a rose. It is the idea behind disengagement: 'Let's declare victory, and then withdraw'. You go as far as you can, then you stop and declare that you've 'arrived'.
Compare the powerful {93,3x}, in which 'the fatigue/lagging of ardor carves out shelters/refuges'. In that verse, the shelters or refuges are religions; in the present verse, they are claims of 'arrival' or 'attainment'.
That ma;hmil-aaraa sounds at least a small note of mockery. What then is the tone of the verse? Despairing? Bitter? Rueful? Amused? Resigned? We can all choose a tone or two, based on our own lives.
Asi:
rasiidan -- that is, 'to arrive'. vaa-maa;Ndagii -- that is, the preface to lying fallen and becoming tired. We are uselessly coming in to adorning the camel-litter of movement. And we are absorbed in trifling road-traversing. That is, only/emphatically this will be the result of arriving: that we will remain there, and keep lying there.
== Asi, p. 159