vaḥshat : 'A desert, solitude, dreary place; — loneliness, solitariness, dreariness; — sadness, grief, care; — wildness, fierceness, ferocity, savageness; barbarity, barbarism; — timidity, fear, fright, dread, terror, horror; — distraction, madness'. (Platts p.1183)
shināsī : 'Knowing, &c. (used as last member of compounds)'. (Platts p.734)
nigāh-bān : 'Observer; watchman, guard; keeper, guardian, protector; curator'. (Platts p.1151)
The beloved's heedlessness is in reality a kind of ambush-place in which she sits and seeks to learn about the wildness of the lovers. That is, the reason for showing heedlessness is in order to learn in whose heart the effect of the heedlessness creates wildness. The one in whose heart there will be wildness will be considered a true lover. We are overseeing the hearts of the Rivals, lest in them somehow the effects of wildness might be created; if that would happen, then they too would be considered trustworthy.
SETS == SUBJECT?
For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.
Whose 'heedlessness' is at issue? Zamin thinks it's the lover's, while Gyan Chand thinks it's the beloved's. Once again, Ghalib has left us to decide for ourselves.
The nature of vaḥshat-shināsī has also been left quite unclear. Could it also mean the exploration of the speaker's own 'wildness' (so that one symptom of his madness is that he decides he's an overseer of the Rivals' hearts)? Or could the 'others' be more general, so that the speaker scrutinizes the hearts of the people he meets? (This latter possibility would resemble that of {96,6}.)
Another obscure verse about an 'ambush-place' and 'heedlessness': {184,4x}.
Zamin:
That is, our practice of heedlessness is only in order to search out the state of the wildness of Others. In this verse the word vaḥshat is inappropriate, and has been brought in instead of 'claims of love'.
== Zamin, p. 227