Verse 8x1816aa;Nhai
G2
1
{leaving aside formality / 'to tell the truth'}, gather/'collect' the taste/relish of Zulaikha -- otherwise
2
there is a confused/'scattered' dream of the 'embrace of leave-taking' of ' Joseph -land'
'Taste, enjoyment, delight, joy, pleasure, voluptuousness'.
'To collect, accumulate, amass, gather together, assemble, heap; to store up, lay by; to add together, add up, sum up; to call in, raise, levy'.
tir jam((a>> : 'Collected, composed, comforted, assured, contented, confident, tranquil, at ease; satisfactory; --collectedness or peace of mind, composure, content, satisfaction, confidence, assurance, encouragement'.
'Dispersed, scattered; disordered, confused; dishevelled, tossed (as hair); amazed, distracted, perplexed, bewildered, deranged; troubled, distressed, wretched; ruined'.
'Place, situation, station, stall (used as an affix to nouns ending in a vowel.... if the subst. terminate in a consonant, the affix takes the form '.
| References | |
|---|---|
| Arshi, Imtiyaz Ali | Ghazal# 154 |
| Raza, Kalidas Gupta | 275 |
| Nuskhah-e-Hamidiyah | 223-224,227 |
| Asi, Abdul Bari | 232 |
| Gyan Chand | 355-356,358-359 |
| Hamid Ali Khan | Open Image |
Leave aside formality, and obtain a single dream like the dream of Zulaikha. Otherwise, the truth is that a confused dream will become the 'embrace of leave-taking' of Joseph. He has construed confusion as 'openness' because the 'embrace of leave-taking' is usually open. The gist is, 'obtain composure of heart, otherwise there's no hope of finding the desired Joseph'.
== Asi, p. 233
That is, merely seeing the glory/appearance of the beloved in a dream is no proof of the obtaining of union with the beloved, as long as there wouldn't be a taste/relish like Zulaikha's-- that is, true passion. Instead of 'leave-taking of Joseph' he has brought in 'Joseph-land' because he was forced by the rhyme ; this is not devoid of artificiality.... In any case, despite its weakness of composition this verse is not such that it would be called meaningless.
== Zamin, p. 352
Zulaikha saw Hazrat Joseph three times in a dream, and every time when she woke he slipped from her hands. A 'confused/scattered dream' is open and diffused; thus it has a similitude with an 'embrace of leave-taking'. This dream took leave of the stability of Joseph. Oh lover, if you gather an attachment like that of Zulaikha, then you can obtain a beloved like Joseph, as Zulaikha did. If you consider a confused dream to be sufficient, then you will lose Joseph.
== Gyan Chand, p. 359
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 .
On the 'petrified phrase' , see 65,1 . Here, it will initially appear as a conventional 'claim of candor' phrase, but it can also be read, retrospectively, as describing how the addressee ought to acquire the taste of Zulaikha-- by 'putting aside formality'.
On the paradoxical-seeming 'embrace of leave-taking', see 57,6 .
For discussion of the story of Zulaikha's three dreams about Joseph, see 194,5 .
'Joseph-land'?! This bizarre neologism not only doesn't add to the meaning of the verse, but actually detracts from it (since an 'embrace of leave-taking' is much more appropriate for a person than for a country). This seems to be a clear case of padding . Zamin's criticism is obviously correct: the padding is dictated by the requirements of the rhyme .
This verse reminds me of the famous anecdote attributed to Rumi's teacher Shams-e Tabrizi about how one must look at Laila with the eyes of Majnun. Here, we're enjoined to cultivate the (see the definition above) of Zulaikha, because otherwise one will be left with nothing but a confused dream of loss. And Zulaikha's requires a stubborn, even foolhardy courage and commitment in the waking world: in order to find Joseph, she had to insist on marrying an unsuitable eunuch.
The wordplay of 'collecting' and 'scattering' works well here. The idea that one must one's evokes the common expression , meaning something like 'Pull yourself together!' (see the definitions above, and 202,3 ). By contrast, evokes a nightmare of disorder, confusion, and loss.
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