Interpretation-Ghazal-14



1.
In the King's Poetic gathering the sequence of mushiras has started again,
God!please keep flowing of worth and respect and inclination towards poetry and mushairas.
(The prayer must have come from the heart, because Ghalib Sahib saw all these things as vanishing with Kingship.)
2.
Looking at the glittering stars, Ghalib has remembered an Idol temple, he has not remembered paradise,
The passion that Idol-worshipers have for Idols is apparent, and the worship of beauty is a practice of those with the temperament of lovers.
(The apparent reference in the verse is to the widespread use of lamps in Hindu temples,and the ceremonial opening of doors to permit a formal viewing of the image. Note that the comparison is a favourable one, based on radiance,beauty and a lofty elegance.)
3.
The world's friendship is such that the outer and inner are not the same,
In the hand a blade revealed is to express sympathy(Purpose of
curing)and in the sleeve a dagger is concealed(Intends to slit the throat.)
(The blade was an instrument used to blood-letting, it relieves the pressure of brain. The madman thinks the blade is not a cure, but diminishes the madness of passion,as if it were the instrument of
death to him.Yet after all, paranoids have enemies too.)
4.
Up till now, the beloved has never been kind to the lover, so the lover is not familiar with the coquetry and ignorant of the real motive of any deed,
Her show of "Opening Up" to him is some kind of preparatory trick.
(The states of the lover and the beloved are as different as the
earth and sky.)
5.
Her face is colorful like a garden, so it is if the image of beauty and the beauty of actions have one single fruit,
That is from the image of beloved's face, a door to heaven has done the work of worship for me.
(The perfect vision of the true(Divine) beloved has done the work
of worship for me.)
6.
If she hides her face behind a veil, her face is something that has not been seen,
And her beauty too is unparalleled, and thus has never
before been seen.
(In this verse the phrase "That never been seen", is only Ghalib could have devised.)
7.
How could she go back(Physically, verbally or both) that quickly,
Think how quickly and eagerly I would have unrolled my bedding.
(I am left in rueful amazement, but not, of course, ultimately surprised at all.How much the lover craves it and how quickly it is withdrawn.)
8.
In the night of separation disasters are descending on me from the sky,stars are spectators,
For this reason the stars have turned their faces towards the sky.
(If the light of the stars were present,and I was able to see those disasters descending from the sky, then perhaps I would be able to make some plan to protect myself.)
(When I first red this verse my interpretation was that stars were averting their gaze from me in hapless sympathy for my peril.)
9.
To escape from troubles in my homeland, I came abroad,but even in exile there is so much bad news,
That the letters the messenger brings from home are usually open.(The letter in which news of a death would be recorded, the custom was to send it off open.)
10.
I am the community of that Prophet, then how can my work which is related to the earth, remain shut down,
For whom on the night of MIRAJ the door of a door less house like the sky was opened.
(In the night of MIRAJ, when Prophet went up to visit paradise.)
____

© 2020 ghazalsofghalib.com

7700910955

7045845109