Verse 7x1821aashai
G3
1
what grief does he have, of whom the imam would be someone like Ali ?!
2
oh sky-stricken one, why are you even/also this much distracted/distraught?
'One who is followed or imitated; exemplar, guide, leader, head, head of a religion (and especially of the Mohammadan religion), patriarch; priest; minister or reader of a mosque'.
'Struck, stricken, smitten, beaten; affected, afflicted; oppressed'.
'Out of one's senses, beside one's self, distracted'.
| References | |
|---|---|
| Arshi, Imtiyaz Ali | Ghazal# 137 |
| Raza, Kalidas Gupta | 343 |
| Nuskhah-e-Hamidiyah | 188 |
| Asi, Abdul Bari | 219 |
| Gyan Chand | 334 |
| Hamid Ali Khan | Open Image |
It is an entirely clear verse. Since this one verse alone was left out of the ghazal in the divan , it has been noted here.
== Asi, p. 219
= Tormented by the sky. The address is to his own spirit.
== Zamin, p. 325
The verse is clear. 'Oh you who are tormented by the sky, since there is an imam like Ali, why are you feeling anxious?'
== Gyan Chand, p. 334
For background see S. R. Faruqi's choices . This verse is NOT one of his choices; for the sake of completeness, I have added it myself. For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in 4,8x .
Even I, who am a sort of truffle-hunter of complexities, can't find much in this verse. However, there is something: the two possibilities of . If we take to mean 'also', then the meaning of becomes something like what Gyan Chand has in mind: 'Why are you, in addition to other feelings, also so very distraught, 'this much' distraught?' But if we take the to mean 'even', then the tone changes: 'You are not very distraught, but why are you even this much distraught-- you shouldn't be distraught at all!'
For the speaker may have been struck down by the 'sky', but far beyond the sky, in Paradise, Hazrat Ali, the 'Cupbearer of Kausar', will offer him a divine reward.
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