yak nashv-o-numaa jaa nahii;N jaulaan-e havas ko
har-chand bah miqdaar-e dil-e tang nikaaluu;N
1) not a single place of growth/flourishing, for the wandering/movement of desire/lust!
2) although I would bring it out in the proportion/measure of the narrow heart
nashv : 'Intoxication, drunkenness; exhilaration (from wine, &c.), hilarity'. (Platts p.1141)
namaa or numaa : 'Growing; increasing; rising; growth; increase; rise'. (Platts p.1153)
numaa : 'Showing, exhibiting, pointing out;—showing itself, appearing'. (Platts p.1153)
nushv-o-namaa : 'Growth and increase'. (Steingass p.1404)
nashv-numaa : 'Growing up'. (Steingass p.1405)
jaulaan : 'Wandering up and down, wandering about; moving or springing from side to side ... moving round ... coursing; ... Fetters, irons'. (Platts p.398)
havas : 'Desire, lust, concupiscence, inordinate appetite; — ambition; — curiosity'. (Platts p.1241)
miqdaar : 'Measure; quantity, quantum; magnitude, size, bulk, dimension; proportion, extent; space; amount, sum, number attained'. (Platts p.1055)
'Growing up' is a measure of place; that is, if with a thought of the narrowness of the heart I would want to bring out even a little desire, even then for its movement there's not enough room anywhere. The point is that when even my smaller than smallest longing cannot be fulfilled, then what would I long for?
For estimating proportions, Ghalib uses various words-- yak-bayaabaa;N aarzuu , yak-zaanuu ta))aamul , and so on. In this way, for a place he has carved out the construction yak-nashv-o-numaa jaa -- that is, the amount of space in which a plant would be able to bloom and bear fruit. My heart is narrow. The heart of a sorrowful person is [habitually] indeed narrow. I want to set in motion my desire, in order to obtain the desire [kaam] of my heart, but in the world there's absolutely not enough space for the fulfilment of desire or longing. Although in accordance with the narrowness of my heart I would set in motion an exceedingly small desire, still the world is so unfavorable that there's not even any scope for its coming true.
SETS
GRANDIOSITY: {5,3}
PROPORTIONALITY: {6,4}
For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}. See also the overview index.
On yak versus ek , see {78,6}. Gyan Chand thinks that yak-nashv-o-numaa jaa is an example of a special, Persianized idiomatic structure; for discussion and examples, see {11,1}. I can't really agree; to me it seems more like a 'reversed i.zaafat ' based on jaa-e nashv-o-numaa . As so often, the first line piques our curiosity while remaining quite uninterpretable (no such place-- where? why?).
The first line turns out to be quite grandiose enough-- no place at all is sufficient for the proper flourishing and movement of the speaker's desire/lust. Then the second line piles on even further grandiosity-- all places are inadequate, even though the speaker's desire/lust would be constrained in quantity by the 'narrowness' of his suffering heart. So even a tiny fraction of the speaker's desire/lust would still be way too much for the universe to accommodate!
Fortunately it sounds as though the speaker may not have any immediate plans to 'bring out' his desire or lust. Compare {5,4}, in which the speaker's most casual thoughts are so potent that he inadvertently burns down the desert.
Asi:
Nowhere in the world is there enough space for my desire to wholly grow up. Although I would bring out my desire/lust to the extent possible for my narrow heart, not even that much can emerge.
== Asi, pp. 171-172