Ghazal 400x, Verse 2

Zamin:

This verse is difficult to interpret! [The grammar is confusing.] In any case, the prose will be: 'Oh unknown person, you destroyed the garden in such a way that except for the egg of a Ring-dove, who is a fistful of dust, you didn't leave anything remaining. And in such a place where there was nothing-- that is, in nonexistence-- you collected dust to put on the head of the cypress.'

The dust for the head of the cypress was adopted because it is the dust of the Ring-dove.

== Zamin, p. 438

Gyan Chand:

From the Ring-dove's egg will be born the Ring-dove, who is now in the realm of nonexistence. The Ring-dove is a fistful of dust. farq-e sarv = the top/head of the cypress. The Ring-dove sits on the cypress. It is not clear to whom the verse is addressed. Nothing is left in the garden except the Ring-dove's egg. On the other side of the garden is nonexistence; there, a single fistful of dust-- that is, the Ring-dove is present, waiting to be born. So to speak, for the cypress there's nothing in the garden, and nonexistence too is hardly populated. There's only a single fistful of dust called a Ring-dove.

== Gyan Chand, p. 452

FWP:

SETS
EXISTENCE/NONEXISTENCE: {5,3}
GRANDIOSITY: {5,3}

For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}.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

Here the (human or divine) beloved's beauty and/or cruelty seems to be radically destructive. Its fatal power has devastated the garden, leaving nothing except a single egg of a Ring-dove. Not only is the 'garden' of existence devastated-- the realm of 'nonexistence' has been depopulated as well. Nothing remains there except a 'fistful of dust', suited to the head of the cypress. Flinging dust on one's head is a class sign of extreme grief.

A 'fistful of dust' is also a description of the Ring-dove himself: any Ghalib-lover would at once think of the classic {230,5}. In the ghazal world, the Ring-dove is considered to be the lover of the cypress. So the 'fistful of dust' not only could be a sign of the cypress's grief at losing a devoted lover, but could also be an evocation of the Ring-dove himself-- especially as he might appear in the realm of 'nonexistence'. And what does it mean to be 'remaining, eternal' (see the definition above) in the realm of 'nonexistence', anyway?

That same 'fistful of dust' image can also be for Ghalib a notably, and bleakly, cosmic one. The grounds for it are spelled out in {217,4}, by Nazm: that verse has 'called the sky a Ring-dove's egg, in which there's nothing at all but a handful of dust'. (After all, if the bird himself is a 'handful of dust', what else would there be in his egg except another, embryonic 'handful of dust'?) In the present verse, the logic seems even bleaker: in this garden of existence there's now nothing but an egg containing a handful of dust; and in the realm of nonexistence there's not even the egg-- there's only the handful of dust. Why has the (divine or human) beloved caused this to happen? As so often, we're left to decide for ourselves.