Verse 7x1816aadahrakhte hai;N
G9
In this meter the next-to-last long syllable may be replaced by two shorts.
1
with the aspect/'color' of greenery/greenness, the dear/worthy/admired ones of bad speech/'tongue' altogether/'in a single hand'
2
keep a thousand swords that have been given 'poison-water'
'Dear, worthy, precious, highly esteemed, greatly valued, honoured, respected, beloved;—a great man; a worthy or pious personage, a saint; one beloved, a dear friend; a relation, relative'.
'Entire; uniform, even (cloth); —homogeneous; —what can be lifted with one hand; —adv. Altogether'.
'Poison, venom, virus; (met.) anything bitter or disagreeable; gall and worm-wood'.
'Dirty, stagnant, or envenomed water; rennet for curdling cheese; water in which fruits have been macerated, their bitterness being left behind'. (Steingass p.630)
'Water; water or lustre (in gems); temper (of steel, &c.); edge or sharpness (of a sword, &c.); sparkle, lustre; splendour; elegance; dignity, honour, character, reputation'.
| References | |
|---|---|
| Arshi, Imtiyaz Ali | Ghazal# 94 |
| Raza, Kalidas Gupta | 207 |
| Nuskhah-e-Hamidiyah | 155-156 |
| Asi, Abdul Bari | 170-171 |
| Gyan Chand | 273-275,539 |
| Hamid Ali Khan | Open Image |
As someone has taken a sword quenched in the greenery of , it's apparent that the leaves of greenery and grass have a similitude with a sword. Thus our bad-speaking esteemed one too has taken up, for our slaying, thousands of swords that she has quenched in .
== Asi, p. 171
The 'esteemed ones of bad speech' are the same advice-givers who are saying all kinds of bitter and cutting things. In verdure, there are thousands of swords. The esteemed ones who speak badly also have thousands of swords-- and not ordinary ones either, but ones quenched [during forging] in . is an insult and a reproach. Poison is conventionally green. Thus a sword quenched in will be green, and will have a similitude with greenery.
== Gyan Chand, p. 275
For background see S. R. Faruqi's choices . For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in 4,8x .
At the heart of this verse, as of so many, is wordplay involving the spectacularly protean little word . For discussion and more examples, see 193,2 . Here's how it pulls the wordplay together:
=as water: 'greenery' (verdant foliage) requires water; 'tongues' require water; 'swords' require water in their forging
=as sharpness or shiningness or temperedness: all qualities of a 'sword' (or many swords), carried in 'one hand'
=as an element in 'poison-water': this water can be 'dirty' (like the nasty tongues) or 'stagnant' (stagnant water turns green) or 'envenomed' (poison is easily mixed into water); according to Gyan Chand, poison is also conventionally thought to be 'green'.
Gyan Chand suggests that the swords were quenched [] in during the forging process, and that this has turned them green. Such a color-change doesn't sound likely. But swords could certainly also be dipped in a poisonous liquid, to make any small scratch from them deadly (think of Hamlet's death). A striking way to describe a poisonous tongue, isn't it? It doubles the sarcastic effect of in the first line.
Compare 217,2 , another verse about swords and . The possibility that could also refer to an acidic chemical used in the sword-tempering process is discussed in the context of that verse.
graphics/poisonsword.jpg