Ghazal 424x, Verse 2

Asi:

In the state of melancholy, the heart-less ones complain only/emphatically to you, because you alone are the structure and foundations of the coldness/melancholy of the lamp of dawn and the witheredness of the rose of the autumn season; then, to whom else would they complain?

== Asi, p. 309

Zamin:

In the second line, se is in the meaning of 'on account of'. That is, on your account the lamp of dawn and the rose of the autumn season have become melancholy. Thus their complaint too is to you alone-- that you alone are the one who causes them to glow and to bloom.

== Zamin, p. 450

Gyan Chand:

The heart-less people, in a state of melancholy, complain to you alone. The lamp of dawn and the flower of the autumn season are usually melancholy and without color. These two are both complaining to you, that you should bestow upon them a fresh radiance.

== Gyan Chand, p. 472

FWP:

SETS == SE

For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}.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

This verse is, formally speaking, a second opening-verse.

As Gyan Chand notes in discussing {424x,1}, the addressee throughout this ghazal seems to be the Lord (or else a beloved so divinized that it's hard to tell the difference).

In this verse, as generally in the ghazal world, the 'heart-less ones' are those who have given away their hearts, burnt themselves out, sacrificed themselves; this is of course admirable, lover-like behavior on their part. For discussion of 'heart-lessness', see {8,2}.

When we hear the first line, we cannot tell whether fusurdagii has its literal meaning of 'frozenness, numbness' or its extended meaning of 'melancholy, dejection' (see the definition above). On the whole, we might guess 'melancholy', since that sense is more common in general usage. Under mushairah performance conditions, we'd then be made to wait a bit before being allowed to hear the second line.

When we do finally hear the second line, it's clear that the answer is, poignantly, both senses. For the 'lamp of dawn' has burned up all its oil, and now sits in 'cold' solitude. Similarly, the rose of autumn, born too late, comes into a 'cold' garden and pours out its solitary radiance without any of the admiration it would have attracted in the spring. Both the lamp and the rose are thus 'heart-less' because they have given their all, have burnt out their hearts. They are now 'cold', and their being 'melancholy' is proved by their making a 'complaint' to the Lord.

The tujh se at the end of the second line has two possible readings, each of them entirely apposite. It might simply be emphasizing the direction of the complaint: 'the heart-less ones complain to you, the lamp and the rose-- to you'. Or it might be emphasizing the reason for their complaint: 'the burnt-out lamp and the autumnal rose are as they are through you, because of you'.