muu-e dimaa;G-e va;hshat sar-rishtah-e fanaa hai
shiiraazah-e do-((aalam yak aah-e naa-rasaa hai
1) the 'nose-hair' of wildness is the cord-end of oblivion
2) the binding-thread of the two worlds is a single futile/hapless sigh
muu-e dimaa;G : 'Hateful, disagreeable'. (Steingass p.1350)
naak kaa baal : ''Hair of the nose'; — one who is respected or honoured; — one who has influence over another'. (Platts p.1116)
va;hshat : 'Loneliness, solitariness, dreariness; — sadness, grief, care; — wildness, fierceness, ferocity, savageness; barbarity, barbarism; — timidity, fear, fright, dread, terror, horror; — distraction, madness'. (Platts p.1183)
sar-rishtah : 'End of a cord or thread, &c.; rope, cord, thread, line; series; connexion, affinity; rule, practice, course, custom, usage, form; rites, ceremonies'. (Platts p.653)
naa-rasaa : 'Unworthy, unfit; incapable; — ill-bred, unmannerly'. (Platts p.1111)
muu-e dimaa;G = A companion of some aristocrat who would be a 'hair in the nose' [naak kaa baal]. The darling [laa;Dlaa] of wildness is the cord-end of oblivion; that is, a person stricken with wildness keeps longing for death. It is a 'piece of luck' [;Ganiimat] that his longing remains futile/hapless, and in this way the binding-thread of the world remains established. Otherwise, if wildness had its way then it would scatter the binding-thread of the world and turn everything into oblivion.
SETS == IDIOMS
For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.
On the shiiraazah and bookbinding technology, see {10,12}. On do-((aalam expressions, see {18,2}.
There is something fascinating going on with muu-e dimaa;G . In Persian, it apparently refers to something 'hateful, disagreeable' (see the definition above). That's how it's used in {42,8x} and {117,5x}, with the commentators' full approval. But in the present verse things are more complicated. Zamin retains that negative sense (it is something that 'pricks'), but Gyan Chand equates the Persian muu-e dimaa;G with the Hindi naak kaa baal , which apparently refers to someone 'honored' or 'influential' (see the definition above). On the whole, I think the evidence suggests that Ghalib used 'nose-thread' in a Persianized, negative sense (as even Gyan Chand agrees, in all cases except the present verse).
This very abstract verse is based on string or thread imagery. A nose-hair is elongated and thin, a 'cord-end' leads all the way to oblivion, a binding-thread is very long and thin indeed, a sigh is prolonged and emerges in a linear flow. But how are we to put them together? The i.zaafat markers ensure that there will be plenty of options to choose from (the nose-hair that 'afflicts' wildness? the nose-hair that 'is' wildness? the nose-hair that 'pertains' somehow to wildness? and so on).
My own favorite reading is that 'wildness' irritates one the way an ingrown nose-hair would (on this see {42,8x}). This pain and irritation are just the end of the long but unbroken chain of vexations that will lead one (the mad lover, or any random person) in the end to death and oblivion. The 'binding-thread' that holds together the two worlds (this world and the next) is the vain sigh of vexation and futility that is apparently one's helpless (resigned? despairing? contemptuous?) response to them both.
Zamin:
That is, life cannot be passed in freedom and carelessness because the pricking/piercing of oblivion is lodged. This same pricking he has construed in the second line as a futile/hapless sigh that is neither here nor there, that constantly keeps the heart agitated-- sometimes there is lament over worldly concerns, and sometimes sighing with fear of what is to come.
== Zamin, p. 407