Verse 4x1816ezhai
G1
1
the heart is entirely {an endowment of / intent upon} the madness of the sharp glance/gaze
2
this ground, like a reed-thicket, is extremely/'severely' arrow-producing
'Standing, stopping, staying, halting, waiting; pausing (over); being intent (upon), endeavouring fully to understand; — bequeathing for pious purposes; tranquillity; firmness; constancy; permanency; ... a bequest or legacy for pious purposes, a religious or charitable endowment (as habitations for the poor, books for the use of learned men, &c.)'.
'Look, glance, sight, view, regard; consideration; — look, aspect (of); — watching, observation, attention; — custody, care'.
'Sharp, keen, acute; penetrating, piercing (glance, &c.); hot, pungent, strong, acrid; caustic, corrosive; fiery, passionate, impetuous, violent; swift, fleet'.
'Hard, stiff, rigid, firm, fast; strong, solid; tight;... wretched; difficult, arduous, troublesome; painful, grievous; severe, intense, vehement, violent;... austere, stern, harsh; very cruel, fell; --adv. Very, intensely, violently, severely, excessively extremely, &c.'.
| References | |
|---|---|
| Arshi, Imtiyaz Ali | Ghazal# 163 |
| Raza, Kalidas Gupta | 251 |
| Nuskhah-e-Hamidiyah | 246 |
| Asi, Abdul Bari | 240-241 |
| Gyan Chand | 374-375 |
| Hamid Ali Khan | Open Image |
[His text has a different first line, which he considers almost meaningless.] Then, too-- the Lord knows in which realm this 'ground' is!
== Zamin, p. 368
The heart has a madness for being the destination of the beloved's sharp glances. Just as a bamboo-thicket is a producer of arrows, in the same way my heart is a place of arrows. The beloved's gaze is like an arrow. Since harsh/violent glances fall on the heart, it is an arrow-garden.
== Gyan Chand, p. 374
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 For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in 4,8x .
In what sense is the heart a (see the definition above)? Is it 'intent upon' the sharp glance, or 'endeavoring to understand' it, or an 'endowment' made by it? In a verse so abstract, it's really impossible to narrow down the meaning. (Compare 15,11 , in which is used in a similarly unresolvable way.)
But in any case, we learn that the heart is a 'ground' that is, like a reed-thicket, 'severely' or 'violently' or 'extremely' arrow-producing. Gyan Chand points out that arrow-shafts have traditionally been made from reeds (on reeds see 10,3 ), so the analogy works well. And the word is a true gem of wordplay and meaning-play; for an even more effective use of it, see 167,2 .
graphics/arrow-reeds.jpg