Ghazal 423x, Verse 1

Asi:

We have renounced the world from indolence; we did not renounce it on the path of contentment [with God's will]. Alas, the practice of fruitlessness that we have adopted-- from it we get no profit. In one other place, he has composed the very same thought like this: {81,4}.

== Asi, p. 272

Zamin:

Since the world is the profit/fruit of a lifetime, the renunciation of it is fruitlessness. But from that fruitlessness, or from the renunciation of the world, no profit/fruit occurred. That is, if we had renounced the world for the sake of religion, then some profit/fruit would have occurred. From renouncing it through indolence, what was gained? Nothing was gained here, nor was anything gained there.

== Zamin, p. 402

Gyan Chand:

be-;haa.silii = to keep no goal/purpose in the heart. We did not renounce the world under the sway of piety and abstinence, but rather through indolence. Thus from the renunciation of goal-seeking we will obtain [hame;N ;haa.sil hogaa] nothing in this world or the next.

== Gyan Chand, pp. 397-398

FWP:

SETS

For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}.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

Platts gives the obvious meaning for be-;haa.silii (see the definition above). Gyan Chand, however, points to another meaning of be-;haa.silii : a (Sufistic or ascetic) state in which one has no inner goal or purpose-- a sort of 'desirelessness'. The result is that the second line can be read in a perfectly coherent way: 'We have gained nothing from desirelessness'.

Or else it can be read in a piquant, madly tautological way: 'We have no fruit from fruitlessness' (or no profit from profitlessness, or the like). For after all, why should, or would, anyone expect any 'fruit' from 'fruitlessness'? As so often, we're left to decide this for ourselves.