This verse will surely remind Urdu-lovers of Faiz's famous called , with its pointed declaration: 'There are other sorrows too in the world besides love' []. This sentiment is frequently taken to be part of a radical revision of the ghazal, an introduction into it of deeply untraditional content. Yet the thought isn't entirely new, for we see its direct ancestor in the second line of this verse; Faiz also uses the same 'informative' [] style adopted by Ghalib. And Faiz was a notable Ghalib fan, giving two of his volumes of poetry Ghalibian titles: (1943) from 1,1 , and (1965) from 230,7 ; in fact his itself is called , from 7,3 . The similarities are striking-- but so are the differences. Faiz follows up the thought in another 'informative' line: 'There are other comforts besides the comfort of union' [], and then the nazm moves on to its conclusion. The context is also broader: Faiz's poem suggests, in other lines, that the sorrows in the world that oppress the lover may not be his alone, but may be those of the wretched of the earth, and of the human condition in general ('The gaze returns to that direction too-- what can be done?' []. By contrast, Ghalib appends his line to a clause in the first line that's either a question or an exclamation-- in short, a form of speech. Thanks to the magic of , this clause can be read either as a negative rhetorical question or exclamation (how would there be amends?! there would hardly be amends!), as in (1a); or as a genuine yes-or-no question (would there be amends, or not?), as in (1b). In either case, there's no indication that Ghalib's lover feels for the sorrows of others-- either of sufferers, or of people in general-- as Faiz's lover does. And then, of course, there's the question of tone. Nazm reads the verse as a form of bargaining: the beloved is prepared to offer a certain amount of kindness, and the lover seizes his chance and claims, abjectly or insinuatingly, that some extra kindness is needed. The verse could thus be read in a mischievous, tongue-in-cheek way that would make it highly amusing. Bekhud Mohani seems to take it quite seriously: life is grimmer than even the beloved's kindness can atone for, the lover has suffered damage that not even the beloved can repair. Ghalib's line is, in short, like an atom, with protons and electrons whirling around all the time, making it impossible for it ever to be 'fixed' once and for all. Faiz's line is like a brick in a wall: laid on other bricks, it supports still more bricks, in a pattern that makes meaning in larger, clearer units. It's possible to say with confidence what message Faiz's lover is conveying to his beloved; it's not possible to know what Ghalib's lover really has in mind. Part of what's going on here is of course explained by the generic differences between ghazal and nazm; on this, see Nazm's commentary on the next verse, 167,6 . Compare also 215,8 , which takes an even more cosmic approach to the sufferings of human life in the world. graphics/oppression.jpg