Verse 121847aabme;N
G3
1
that enchantment would not work in goal-seeking
2
the enchantment from which a ship would move in a mirage
'Enchantment, fascination, magic, sorcery'.
| References | |
|---|---|
| Arshi, Imtiyaz Ali | Ghazal# 109 |
| Raza, Kalidas Gupta | 391-92 |
| Hamid Ali Khan | Open Image |
And for a ship to move in a mirage is intended to mean, for an event outside of normal experience to take place. (100)
== Nazm page 100
He says that magic doesn't achieve any goal at all in the beloved's heart-- the magic by means of which a ship moves in a mirage. (151)
[Comments on this verse are included in 97,11 .]
This verse too is in harmony [] with the previous one. (191)
This verse is treated by many editors and commentators as the second half of a two-verse verse-set . For discussion, see 97,11 .
On mirages, see 16,4 .
An enchantment, or piece of sorcery, or other magic spell or action [], was a concept with which Ghalib's readers were thoroughly familiar. In 29,3 he refers to a more specific kind of enchanted world, a , and in 22,7 he names Amir Hamzah , the greatest hero of the magic-filled Urdu romance tradition. Hamzah's greatest enemies were powerful magicians, or -- literally, those who performed .
Like the previous verse, this one packs its punch in the second line, with its arresting image of the implausible, the dreamlike, the marvelous. And like the previous verse (and for the same reasons), this verse too is remarkably possible to capture in English. In the days when I wanted to translate Ghalib, I was planning to render the second line as 'the spell that could sail a ship in a mirage'.
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