For background see S. R. Faruqi's choices . For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in 4,8x . Gyan Chand's text has not but , which seems a far less probable reading than Raza's, since it sacrifices the excellent wordplay and gains nothing in return; as always, I follow Raza. In this particular case Gyan Chand's text might have been carelessly conflated with his text of 3,8x . An enchantment [] is a magic world, a narrative concept developed to the highest possible degree in the Dastan of Amir Hamzah . An enchanted world in which no one could speak or hear, or at least no one did speak or hear, would be a fine realm for a hero to explore. But the speaker feels that either he's trapped in a cemetery, or else he's an 'alien' or 'destitute'-- no matter what the explanation, he's not a gallant hero but someone who's hopelessly isolated and alone. Either people in this enchanted realm neither speak nor hear (since they're literally or metaphorically dead), or else he himself is a kind of deaf-mute and cannot even hear their conversation, much less share in it; thus he himself is socially 'dead'. Needless to say, without the wordplay of 'city of the silent' for 'cemetery', this verse wouldn't have a leg to stand on. While we're mentioning body parts, 'head to head' is a great touch, in a verse based on speech and hearing. Compare Mir's more spectacularly radical use of the idea of a : M 1314,9 . graphics/golcondatombs1813.jpg