Verse 6xafter 1821aa;Nnah puuchh
G3
1
every fresh wound is a single wound-awaiting heart
2
the offering/breadth of the spaciousness of the pain-testing breast-- don't ask!
'A mark burnt in, a brand, cautery; mark, spot, speck; stain; stigma; blemish; iron-mould; freckle; pock; scar, cicatrix; wound, sore; grief, sorrow; misfortune, calamity; loss, injury, damage'.
'Presenting or representing; representation, petition, request, address; — Breadth, width'.
| References | |
|---|---|
| Arshi, Imtiyaz Ali | Ghazal# 129 |
| Raza, Kalidas Gupta | 224-25 |
| Asi, Abdul Bari | 204-206 |
| Gyan Chand | 316-318 |
| Hamid Ali Khan | Open Image |
Every fresh wound in my heart is, so to speak, a single heart that is waiting for a wound. Then, in such a situation, why do you ask about the offering/breadth and spaciousness of this breast that is testing pain? If there were any limit or reckoning, then it would/could be expressed.
== Asi, pp. 205-206
Someone has asked, 'Your heart is a great mad-house of collected pain-- after all, how much capacity does it have? And to what extent can pain be contained within it?' In reply, the poet says, 'Don't ask about the spaciousness-- to put it briefly, every wound in my breast is in its own right a heart that is waiting eagerly to endure a fresh wound. Just consider that this series of wounds is in this way unstoppable and endless.'
== Zamin, pp. 308-309
My breast likes pain and wounds; it tests their intensity. When a new wound of longing occurs, then it becomes a kind of heart that would be waiting for pain. As if each new wound searches for another new wound. How can the expansiveness/scope of such a wound-loving breast be conveyed!
== Gyan Chand, p. 317
For background see S. R. Faruqi's choices . For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in 4,8x .
ABOUT NOUN COMPOUNDS (' REVERSED IZAFATS '): This verse displays two sets of Persian-style 'reversed izafats' [] or what I call 'noun compounds': 'wound-wait' [] and 'pain-test' []. These constructions, so versatile and ubiquitous in English ('junk food', 'horse show', 'show horse', 'vacuum cleaner', 'fire hose', 'time machine', 'endurance test'), are uncommon in Urdu. (Cases like are just dropped phrases; a real noun compound would be ). Ghalib uses such compounded nouns more freely in his early verses, in which he's more willing to warp the syntax of his lines; he includes Indic words too. As in English, the relationship of the two nouns is flexible and must be deduced from the context. Sometimes I have trouble analyzing the niceties of such constructions; for more precision and detail, you should be sure to consult a Persian reference grammar or handbook of rhetoric.
Some examples of noun compounds: 3,11x ; 11,4x ; 12,5x ; 16,7x ; 24,10x ; 40,6x ; 64,1 ; 68,3 ; 69,4x ; 79,3x ; 79,5x ; 128,2x ; 129,5x ; 130,5x ; 145,7x ; 155,4x ; 206,1 ; 208,10 ; 211,8x ; 217,8x ; 222,2x ; 227,1 // 307x,1 ; 320x,5 ; 404x,2 ; 404x,7 . (Petrified compound words that have Persian-verb-based second elements are of course another matter, and appear everywhere: consider and and the like, and the extremely bonded case of .) On serial izafats that include the (inverted?) adjective-noun pair , see 80,3 . There's also 'loss of the izafat' []; on this see 81,8x .
The wordplay with and suggests a vision of the lover's breast as becoming constantly wider and more open (which in principle is of course a virtue). Each wound contributes to the process by literally 'opening up' and exposing a new, formerly inner part, so that the surface area increases. And then each wound itself somehow becomes a whole new heart, ready and waiting for another wound, starting the process all over again in what must quickly become something like a fractal geometry of constantly multiplying wounds and hearts.
Is this grotesque, or what! It reminds me of 62,6 with its vision of many additional blood-spouting eyes.
Anyway, this whole process is apparently so enjoyable that the breast is 'pain-testing'-- because it's constantly looking around for newer and sharper sources of pain, and never gets enough.This pain-testing heart is well worthy to be made, or else to make, an 'offering' or a 'presentation' so extraordinary that it's simply inexpressible in words.
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