Verse 4x1816aarke
G3
1
after the leave-taking of the friend/beloved, we are agitated/palpitating in/through blood
2
we are the footprints of the sole of the foot of the image/beloved
'Agitated, distressed (esp. with heat), heated; palpitating, fluttering'.
'Painting; colouring; drawing; designing, &c.; —delineation; —embroidery; —a painting, a picture; portrait; drawing; a print; a carving, an engraving; ... —an impression; a stamp; a mark'.
'The foot; sole of the foot; a foot's length; a footstep, step, pace'.
'Froth, foam ... ; the palm of the hand; the sole of the foot'. (Steingass p.1036)
'A picture, painting, portrait, effigy; an idol; —a beautiful woman, beauty; mistress, sweetheart'.
'Decoration, embellishment; — designs; decorations, ornaments; — paintings, pictures'.
| References | |
|---|---|
| Arshi, Imtiyaz Ali | Ghazal# 153 |
| Raza, Kalidas Gupta | 284 |
| Nuskhah-e-Hamidiyah | 222-223 |
| Asi, Abdul Bari | 230-231 |
| Gyan Chand | 354-355 |
| Hamid Ali Khan | Open Image |
After the leave-taking of the friend/beloved, we are writhing in blood, and it seems as if we are her henna-ed footprints. Because a footprint too writhes in the dust-- because of this fallenness he has called himself a footprint, and because of the writhing in blood he has given as a token the henna-ed foot.
== Asi, pp. 230-231
The reason for giving to the footprint the simile of bloody writhing is that the beloved's feet are henna-ed. In the is superfluous, and this construction is from Persian. Was the burden of itself not enough for the shoulder of Urdu, that another should be added to it?
== Zamin, p. 347
After the friend/beloved's going, I am rolling in blood, and am writhing as though I am the footprint of the beloved's red footsteps, because that too rolls, and because of the redness of the foot it writhes in blood.
== Gyan Chand, p. 354
For background see S. R. Faruqi's choices . For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in 4,8x .
Why is the lover (like) the beloved's footprints? Because after her departure the lover writhes in pain; while her gait is gracefully swaying, so that her footsteps might seem to have a side-to-side movement. And most especially because the lover writhes in his heart's blood; while the soles of her feet are reddened with henna, which is more or less blood-colored. For more about henna, see 18,4 .
And also because metaphorically she tramples the lover, crushing him and his heart, reducing him to a bloody writhing footprint. The lover as roadkill-- isn't it kind of a grotesque vision?
There's an enjoyable wordplay about painting between and , so that the common paired phrase (see the definition above) hovers invisibly above the second line.
graphics/hennafoot.jpg