For background see S. R. Faruqi's choices . This verse is NOT one of his choices; I thought it was interesting and have added it myself. For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in 4,8x . The phrase at the beginning of the first line requires an implied kyaa , to make it into a rhetorical question; otherwise the verse becomes incoherent. The evidence that the Messenger has spoken with the beloved is his reluctance to speak with the lover-- his averted eyes, his looking askance. What dreadful suspicions might be going through the lover's mind? Here are some of them: =That the Messenger himself fell in love with the beloved the moment he saw her, so that he now considers the lover to be a Rival . =That the Messenger, having been admitted to her presence, now feels himself so lofty in his dignity that he disdains to bother conversing with the wretched lover. =That the Messenger, having conversed with her, has come to share her low opinion of the lover, and to treat the lover as disdainfully as she does. =That the Messenger, having come under her influence, has undertaken at her instigation to carry out some evil plan against the lover. =That the Messenger might be practicing a bit of coyness or even extortion: he claims to have spoken with the beloved, but is showing a (real? feigned?) reluctance to report what she said. It's also possible that the madly paranoid lover is imagining the whole thing, and simply fancies that the Messenger is averting his eyes. But of course, 'paranoids have enemies too'. The range of possibilities is something like that of 14,3 . A traditional carrying-case, in which a messenger would convey a rolled-up letter: graphics/letterholder.jpg