Verse 5x1816uusthaa
G1
1 a
idol-worship is the springtime/flourishing of the descriptions/drawings of the universe
1 b
the springtime/flourishing of the descriptions/drawings of the universe, is idol-worship
2
in every scratching of the pen, was a single lament of a conch-shell
'Designing, planning, forming, inventing; creating; —a painter; delineator, designer; creator; —adorner; embroiderer; —a magic square; a charm; : The art of painting, &c.; —painting; embroidering, &c.; —description'.
'Creaking; grating (as of a door on rusty hinges); scratching sound (of a pen)'.
'A writing-reed, a pen'.
'A kind of wooden gong; a thin oblong piece of wood, suspended by two strings and struck with a flexible rod (used by the Eastern Christians to summon the congregation to divine service, church bells not being allowed in Muhammadan countries); —a kind of shell blown by Hindus in divine worship (i.q. )'.
| References | |
|---|---|
| Arshi, Imtiyaz Ali | Ghazal# 31 |
| Raza, Kalidas Gupta | 160 |
| Nuskhah-e-Hamidiyah | 83-84 |
| Asi, Abdul Bari | 71-72 |
| Gyan Chand | 116 |
| Hamid Ali Khan | Open Image |
The painting/description of the age is, so to speak, idol-worship; and in the condition of painting/describing there is a reversal of education, from which a sound emerges that is, so to speak, the sound of the conch.
== Asi, p. 72
In this versemeans the pen of a painter. He says that in making the shapes/forms of the scenes of nature, the sound that emerges from the pen has the similitude of the lament of a conch-shell. From this it's become clear that painting/artistry is idol-worship.
== Zamin, p. 85
To capture very fine pictures of the scenes of the world is idol-worship, because this inclines one to toward beauty other than God. In this every sound of the painter's pen becomes the sound of a conch-shell, which Hindus play in the temple.
It's only a 'poetic thought' []. He has presented a simile for the scratching of the pen.
== Gyan Chand, p. 116
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 For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in 4,8x .
The was originally something entirely different (see the definition above), but has been repurposed in the ghazal world to mean the conch shell that is often blown as a part of Hindu worship. For more on this kind of redefinition, see 60,8 . For another verse, see 298x,5 .
Through the power of grammatical symmetry, we can take the first line to be about the nature of idol-worship, as in (1a), or else about the nature of drawing or writing, as in (1b). Either way, the use of makes it sound like a flourishing, thriving activity, one in its prime. So why does every scratching of the pen make a 'lament'? No doubt we can come up with possible reasons (finiteness, mortality, meaninglessness, the human condition in general), but still the ' connection ' of the lines leaves something to be desired.
Compare the deservedly preeminent 'scratching of the pen' verse, 169,13 , the only one selected for the published divan .
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