For more
on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.
This ghazal is exceptionally late (1865), and has received almost no commentary.
Because of 'symmetry', from hearing the first line alone we can't tell even whether the sacred-thread has become a set of prayer-beads, or the prayer-beads have become a sacred-thread-- much less why or how. In classic mushairah-verse style, even when we are allowed to hear the second line, the punch-word is withheld until the last possible moment, so that it has an almost explosive closural effect.
Not until we hear dil can we tell what has happened. The beloved, being an infidel [kaafir] (as in {34,6}), apparently wears a Brahminical sacred thread around her delicate waist (and over her delicate shoulder, too?). But she is so fatally beautiful that she has acquired many lovers' hearts, and has apparently strung them on her sacred thread for convenient portability. Thus they resemble beads, and the sacred thread has become a set of prayer-beads.
The speaker is agitated at this sight, and uneasy; he invokes the Lord's protective action. But he's not dismayed by the grisly spectacle of all those strung-together blood-dripping hearts. He's only concerned because the beloved might find the weight of all those hearts too much for her delicate waist.
Compare {10,2}, in which the beloved makes prayer-beads from drops of the lover's blood.
For a much more impressive juxtaposition of prayer-beads and sacred-thread, with discussion, see {204,7}.
FWP:
SETS == EXCLAMATION; MUSHAIRAH; SYMMETRY
RELIGIONS: {60,2}
For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.
This ghazal is exceptionally late (1865), and has received almost no commentary.
Because of 'symmetry', from hearing the first line alone we can't tell even whether the sacred-thread has become a set of prayer-beads, or the prayer-beads have become a sacred-thread-- much less why or how. In classic mushairah-verse style, even when we are allowed to hear the second line, the punch-word is withheld until the last possible moment, so that it has an almost explosive closural effect.
Not until we hear dil can we tell what has happened. The beloved, being an infidel [kaafir] (as in {34,6}), apparently wears a Brahminical sacred thread around her delicate waist (and over her delicate shoulder, too?). But she is so fatally beautiful that she has acquired many lovers' hearts, and has apparently strung them on her sacred thread for convenient portability. Thus they resemble beads, and the sacred thread has become a set of prayer-beads.
The speaker is agitated at this sight, and uneasy; he invokes the Lord's protective action. But he's not dismayed by the grisly spectacle of all those strung-together blood-dripping hearts. He's only concerned because the beloved might find the weight of all those hearts too much for her delicate waist.
Compare {10,2}, in which the beloved makes prayer-beads from drops of the lover's blood.
For a much more impressive juxtaposition of prayer-beads and sacred-thread, with discussion, see {204,7}.