yak dar-e bar-ruu-e ra;hmat bastah daur-e shash jihat
naa-umiidii hai ;xayaal-e ;xaanah-viiraa;N kyaa kare
1) a single door toward the face of mercy/kindness, closed/'bound'-- the circle/cycle of the six directions
2) hopelessness is a 'house-desolate' thought/idea-- what would/could it do?!
bastah : 'Bound, shut, closed, fastened, folded up'. (Platts p.155)
daur : 'Circumference, perimeter; circular enclosure; border (of a garment, &c.); circle, circuit; orbit; circuit of rule, compass, jurisdiction, power, authority, dominion, sway; — a period of years, time, age, cycle; a turn, tour, round, course, progress'. (Platts p.533)
The circle/cycle of the six directions has closed the door on the mercy of the Lord. That is, the going-around of the times has kept me deprived of mercy. I am hopeless. What plan/scheme might the thought of a house-desolate man make, such that the door of mercy would again be able to open?
For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.
The first line is so abstract that it's difficult to parse. It's clear that a single door has been closed against mercy/kindness. But what about daur-e shash-jihat ? (On the 'six directions', see {41,4}.) Zamin thinks this 'circle/cycle of the six directions' is the door itself, while Gyan Chand thinks it is what has closed the door. I agree with Zamin; additional evidence for his reading is that the equation of yak dar with daur-e shash-jihat offers both the number-play of 'one' versus 'six', and the intriguing juxtaposition of dar and daur .
The obvious reading of the second line is a pathetic one-- poor, helpless, hapless 'thought' is left in the lurch, with a desolate home and no real hope of getting that door pried open. But whenever a Ghalibian verse looks too simply weak and humble, too full of pathos-- watch out! There's often a shark beneath the lily pad. For it's also possible that what has closed the 'single door' of mercy/kindness is 'house-desolate' thought itself.
That is, the speaker's thought of hopelessness may in fact have been devastatingly potent. Perhaps for the speaker simply to entertain the thought of hopelessness, even accidentally or in passing, is for that thought to reshape his whole experience of the cosmos-- or even the whole cosmos itself. The speaker may even be retrospectively apologizing: 'Well, the thought of hopelessness is simply a house-desolating kind of thought, so naturally it had that effect-- what else would it, or could it, do?' ( kyaa kare ). (When sharks bite swimmers, they can't help it-- they're simply doing what sharks do.)
The ultimate proof of this power of thought to reshape the world: {5,4}, one of my favorite verses in the divan.
Zamin:
This verse too, like the previous ones, comes from some 'special inspiration'! For some door to be closed in the face of mercy, and for its circle to become the six directions, and then for the attribute of thought to be house-desolate-- this is a riddle, which for us is very difficult to understand.
The prose of the verse will be like this: daur-e shash-jihat ek darvaazah hai jo ra;hmat ( ke mu;Nh ) par band kar diyaa gayaa hai. aisii ;haalat-e naa-umiidii me;N ;xayaal-e ;xaanah-viiraa;N kyaa kar saktaa hai .
== Zamin, p. 425