hai buu-e gul ;Gariib-e tasallii-gah-e va:tan
har juzv-e aashiyaa;N par-e parvaaz hai mujhe
1) the scent of the rose is a stranger to/from the contentment-place of the homeland
2) every part/section of the nest is a wing of flight, to me
;Gariib : 'Foreign, alien; strange, wonderful; rare, unusual, extraordinary; — poor, destitute; meek, mild, humble, lowly; — a stranger, foreigner, an alien; — a poor man; a meek or humble person'. (Platts p.770)
tasallii : 'Consolation, comfort, solace; assurance; contentment, satisfaction'. (Platts p.324)
;Gariib = A traveler, a wanderer-away from the homeland, a foreigner. The scent of the rose is certainly a wanderer-away from the homeland, a traveler, because it emerges from the rose and roams all around....
After this is the second line: that the straws of the nest are my wings of flight. This apparently has no meaning, nor does it have connection with the first line. Now there remains the question of Mirza's intention-- it can be that 'Although the homeland is a contentment-place for the homelanders, for me it is worse than being a foreigner or a traveler. For I, like the scent of the rose, am a home-destroyer, and I roam around, and no one even listens to me (gives me contentment).'
He has given for himself the simile of the scent of the rose in order to express his excellence and refinement, and has used the parts of the nest as a wing of flight for the affinity that the bud is the nest of the scent of the rose, and when the rose blooms its petals become the wing of flight for its perfume. Calling the parts of the nest the wing of flight also reveals the home-destroyingness.
The homeland is the place of contentment and repose/ease. The rose-scent and I have the same homeland, I too had my nest in the same garden. The scent of the rose, like a foreigner, has come out of its homeland, and it reminds me of my homeland and nest. The scent of the rose was an integral part; every part of the nest bestows on me the wing of flight to return back there. Thus the rose-scent too incites me to go toward the nest.
For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.
Here is a classic example of the power of 'A,B' construction. How are we to connect the two lines, which are not only semantically independent but entirely different in their imagery? Asi and Gyan Chand consider the wandering rose-scent to be an encouragement to the speaker (a bird) to return to his nest in the garden. Zamin considers the wandering rose-scent to be a kindred spirit, committed like the speaker to endless roaming.
Of course, the first line could go either way. The i.zaafat on ;Gariib could mark the rose-scent as a 'stranger to' the garden (since it goes wandering far away, borne on the wind), or else as a 'stranger from' the garden (since it might be a kind of exile, and might long to return home). But the second line surely becomes far more evocative, far more classically Ghalibian, on Zamin's reading. Along these lines, compare {58,1}; in many other verses as well, the lover is an insatiably restless wanderer who can only fulfill his destiny by leaving the 'contentment-place' of the nest.
This verse is one in which the lover speaks as a bird; for others, see {126,5}.
Asi:
The perfume of flowers is a traveler that is going to the contentment-place of the homeland. So to speak, every part of the nest has become a wing of flight that is bringing me into flight.
== Asi, p. 283