Verse 51855aa))ii
G8
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
for seeing the greenery and the rose
2
it/He has given sight to the eye of the narcissus
| References | |
|---|---|
| Arshi, Imtiyaz Ali | Ghazal# 232 |
| Raza, Kalidas Gupta | 459-60 |
| Hamid Ali Khan | Open Image |
He says, the eye of the narcissus is considered to be blind. But now, the Gardener of the World has graciously bestowed sight upon it, so that it would be able to see the spectacle of the abundance of the greenery and roses. (263)
The Lord, who adorned the world with spring, because of the greenery and flowers, bestowed light in the eye of the narcissus, so that it would be able to see the springtime of greenery and roses. (360)
The eye of the narcissus is normally blind. But in order to see this spring, Nature has given sight to it too. Since this ghazal has ended with the good news of the health of the auspicious King, he has thus in every verse continuously [] used the theme of spring.
This whole ghazal has an unusual degree of internal coherence; for discussion, see 181,1 .
For another example of the blindness of the narcissus, with discussion, see 56,4 . But who has now given to its blind eye the power of sight? The verse omits the subject, as of course is colloquially permissible if the subject is clear from the context. The commentators tend to be convinced that the giver is God. But there's no context that would cause us to suppose so; their view seems to be based mainly on pious assumptions.
The only way the verse can obtain the necessary context is by presupposing the presence of earlier verses in this ghazal. The earlier verses contain no reference to God; rather, the giver of sight seems most plausibly to be the power of Springtime itself. This makes perfect sense, since after all the narcissus is a flower, and what else has springtime been doing in this ghazal except multiplying and empowering greenery and flowers?
graphics/narcissus.jpg
