This ghazal in its divan form has no opening-verse ; in its original form, its opening-verse was 47,3x . The spring breeze is so pure and ineffable that it's invisible. It's like a mirror so bright and lustrous that it can hardly be seen at all, and can only act as a pure reflector. Only when the metal mirror contains some verdigris or rust do we actually notice it as a mirror, and not simply see what is reflected in it. The cloudy green of verdigris, as Nazm points out, has a fine affinity with the greenery of the garden. At least, this is the best I can make of the metaphor. But I'm not entirely satisfied. What does it mean to imagine a metal mirror that is so light or clear or pure as to be invisible? How can it fail to still look like a piece of metal? And since it would presumably then be an ideal reflecting surface, why can't it produce through what it reflects? If what is desired is its own rather than that of what it reflects, then why is the garden part of the spring breeze's own intrinsic , rather than (as seems more logical) part of what it reflects? Should we then say that the green garden-verdigris on the breeze-mirror is what alerts us to the fact that not just the spring breeze but the whole physical world is a mirror, presumably of God's presence? Ghalib certainly knew glass mirrors, as can be seen indirectly in 34,2 , when he insists that this particular verse refers not to a glass but to a metal one. If we were permitted to think of a glass mirror, I would love to imagine that the garden is the metallic backing that turns the transparent glass of the breeze into a reflective mirror. Although I know this is my own invention, I still can't help but like it. ABOUT : Clearly the word (see the definition above) requires us to imagine a metal mirror, one that would have on it some verdigris , in the form of a rusty greenish patina. (Verdigris is what gives the Statue of Liberty its present color.) Other verses about such verdigris: 48,10 (in the 'rainy season'); 60,10 , which uses the term ; 63,1 ; 113,10x , which plays on ; 217,2 , about verdigris on the edge of a sword; 221,4x , about the of a mirror; 254x,2 , with a 'veil of '; 320x,4 , mirrors with no ; 392x,2 , on an iron pen Here's a look at a bronze mirror covered with (from the Khurasan region, c.1200's, about 10" in diameter): * the back * and the front: graphics/mirrorfront.jpg Here's an Ottoman mirror, from the early 1800's-- * the back * and the front: graphics/mirrorfront2.jpg And here's how beautiful verdigris can be: graphics/verdigris.jpg