Verse 5x1816ezhai
G1
1
as if anything/'dust' would be able to come about through the hand and arm of Farhad !
2
the Pillarless [Mountain] is the heavy dream/sleep of Khusrau Parvez
'Sleep; dream, vision'.
'Heavy, weighty, ponderous; great, important, momentous; difficult; burdensome, grievous; — precious, valuable; dear, expensive'.
| 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 |
For goodness sake, under that condition what work would be able to be done by the hand and arm of Farhad, if Khusrau Parvez is, with Shirin, absorbed in his 'heavy sleep/dream'! So to speak, the Pillarless [Mountain] is the sleep [] of Khusrau, which confronts Farhad like a mountain. In such a case what work can his hands and feet do?
== Asi, p. 240
This verse too [like 200,4x ] is from that same [incomprehensible] world. Farhad longed for union with Shirin. What longing did Parvez have such that it would have been unperformable [], the way the Pillarless [Mountain] was unperformable for Farhad? It's possible that Mirza might have said/composed , which in calligraphy became ; in this case, the verse becomes meaningful.
== Zamin, p. 368
Khusrau had said to Farhad, 'If you cut through the Pillarless [Mountain], then I will confide Shirin to you'. Farhad did the carving, but still remained unsuccessful. What were Farhad's hand and arm able to do? In his path, the Pillarless [Mountain] was hardly the obstacle! In truth, the stone in the road was Khusrau's 'heavy sleep/dream'-- that is, the deep sleep [] of heedlessness on his part. He was the real Pillarless [Mountain] that was not cuttable by Farhad's hand and arm.
== 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 For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in 4,8x .
This verse belongs to the 'snide remarks about famous lovers' group; for others, see 100,4 .
The idiomatic expression expresses an indignant rejection of some idea; for another example, see 87,1 . Here, the 'dust' also provides an excellent evocation of Farhad's mad digging.
The commentators maintain that means 'sleep', and refers to Khusrau's heedlessness of his promise to Farhad. But of course also means 'dream', and Khusrau did famously have a very relevant dream. On this see the discussion in 165,4x , which has a remarkably similar structure and theme .
graphics/khusrau.jpg