qabaa-e jalvah-fizaa hai libaas-e ((uryaanii
bah :tarz-e gul rag-e jaa;N mujh ko taar-e daamaa;N hai
1) the robe that is glory-augmenting is the attire of nakedness
2) in the style of the rose, the {jugular vein / 'vein of life'} is, to me, a thread of the garment-hem
qabaa : 'A long gown with the skirt and breast open (and sometimes slits in the armpits); a (quilted) garment; a tunic'. (Platts p.787)
fizaa : 'Increasing, augmenting, enhancing'. (Platts p.781)
rag : 'An artery, a vein; tendon, nerve, sinew, fibre'. (Platts p.598)
The attire of nakedness-- that is, nakedness-- is a glory-augmenting robe. Like a flower, for me too only/emphatically my jugular vein is a thread of my garment-hem; beyond it, no other garment-hem pleases me. A flower's body and garment-hem are one-- just this is my situation/mood. Consider only/emphatically my jugular vein to be the thread of my attire.
SETS
CLOTHING/NAKEDNESS: {3,5}
JALVAH: {7,4}
For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.
Ghalib is partial to imagery of threads and strings; for examples, see {10,12}. But what exactly does it mean to equate the jugular vein with a thread of the garment-hem? Does it simply illustrate the claim in the first line that nakedness is a particularly honorific attire (such that the veins of the body are like threads that have been woven into a fancy garment)? Or does it express a radical rejection of ordinary clothing (so that anybody who has a jugular vein doesn't need any other attire)? Or does it show an admirably lover-like disdain for life itself (the speaker cares no more for his jugular vein than he would for a random thread in his garment-hem)?
The rose is so versatile that it doesn't help to narrow the choices down. Is its stem (like) a jugular vein? Are its petals like garments? Are we to focus on its radiant glory, or its brief life and imminent doom?
In any case, the clear valorization of nakedness is striking. Nakedness is a major source of shame and/or honor-- more often shame, but not always, and not necessarily. For a discussion of this whole question, see {3,5}. The word ((uryaa;N itself always appears in the emphatic closural position, as the rhyme-word; ((uryaanii appears either in that position, or at the end of the first line, as in the present verse; on this see {6,1}.
The clearest valorization of nakedness among the divan verses is in fact {6,1}-- even in the veil of a picture, Qais emerges as naked.
Zamin:
The way for the rose its nakedness is attire, in the same way my nakedness is my attire-- a beauty-increasing attire. Because the fabric ( daaman ) of that attire is woven from the thread of the jugular vein, the way the veins of flowers are the threads of their garment-hems and their jugular veins too, for if their veins are crushed, then there will remain neither the rose, nor the robe of the rose.
== Zamin, p. 426