For background see S. R. Faruqi's choices . For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in 4,8x . On the nature of , see 5,5 . In addition, it's worth taking a close look at that 'hundred cities' of lamp-display. A well-established Persian (though not Urdu) idiomatic pattern, often imported by Ghalib into his verses, is that of the ' - something' of something, which establishes a sense of wholeness, completeness, or a very large quantity. An especially relevant example is the 'cityful of longing' [] of 16,2 ; for more examples and discussion, see 11,1 . In the present verse, this idiomatic pattern in the second line is suddenly multiplied a hundred-fold, perhaps for a new and piquant degree of emphasis; and then we belatedly notice that the has been moved up into the first line. In fact in the first line the phrase might itself structurally be another example of the same idiom; apart from quantity, another possible sense of the idiom is 'suddenness', so perhaps the 'flame' might be counted. Like so many verses with structural parallelism between the lines, this one leaves it up to us to decide about the relationship between the lines. Are they two coexistent and equally legitimate roles (the beloved does her part, the lover does his)? Is the first line the cause, and the second line the effect (because she suggests, he winks)? Is it about cooperation in lighting a fire (she supplies the match, he supplies the lamps)? Or is there an implied complaint-- or perhaps even an implied boast-- about disproportion (she offers merely a single flame, he responds with a hundred cities' worth of light-show)? graphics/flame.jpg