Verse 3x1835aarakhte the
G5
In this meter the first long syllable may be replaced by a short; and the next-to-last long syllable may be replaced by two shorts.
1
its situation was such that no accomplishment-measurer appeared
2
we ourself used to write, and ourself used to take up and keep [it]
'Grace, beauty; elegance; graceful manner on carriage; charm, fascination; blandishment; amorous signs and gestures, coquetry'.
'The act of bringing to completion, &c.; completion, perfection; performance; fulfilment; accomplishment; acquittance'.
'Weigher, measurer; examiner (used as last member of compounds'.
| References | |
|---|---|
| Arshi, Imtiyaz Ali | Ghazal# 207 |
| Raza, Kalidas Gupta | 386 |
| Hamid Ali Khan | Open Image |
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 For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in 4,8x .
This verse and the previous one, 150,3x , form a kind of small unofficial verse-set . If we didn't treat them as such, we could never know that the at the beginning of the first line referred to Ghalib's poetry.
The 'taking up' [] seems to evoke the behavior of a weary merchant with unsold goods at the end of the day; since no connoisseur has 'taken up' and bought the elegant goods, the merchant himself must take them up and store them away.
These two preceding verses give a new slant to the closing-verse , 150,1 , the only one Ghalib selected for the divan . They give a much more specific, focused context to .
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