Interpretation-Ghazal-76

1.

The candle is jealous of the beloved's radiant face, it is burning fire of envy,

The fire of the rose, which is in the beloved's face (the rosy colour of her cheeks) has the power of Water Of Life (Nectar) for the candle.

(They call an extinguished candle a (dead candle), and here Ghalib has imagined a lighted candle to be "living".)

(In this verse, how successful is the attempt to prove that fire is water, and then what kind of water, "Water Of Life".)

(Nectar is so protean, he also shows that the fire of the rose is the lustre and the honour of the candle.)

2.

The falling silent of the poetry-knowers is itself their death,

In the gathering this fact became known through the tongue of the candle.

(Just as in the gathering the candle's becoming extinguished is its death. When that happens, sadness and darkness spread over the gathering. In the same way the death of a poet is his silence.)

(In the language of poets, critics, and candles, death is silence and silence is death.)

3.

The candle completes the whole story through the gesture of the flame,

Sufis, the people of oblivion having been set alight, because oblivious to themselves in the fire of passion and passes away from the lives.

(When the flame is lit then the candle becomes obliterated from head to foot, in the same way when the people of mystic knowledge get the light of truth they become obliterated.)

(Are the people of oblivion dead or alive, we can hardly say. They have traded in this mortal, transient world for an eternal realm that is utterly beyond our comprehension.)

4.

Out of grief the lover(Moth) has been burnt up,

Flame, from your flickering the secret was revealed, that the candle has become weak.

(When the flame moves because of breeze, Ghalib's delicacy of thought has declared it to be due to weakness.)

(The real reason why the candle flame flickers, its weakness has not physical cause, but emotional ones, it's trembling with sorrow and sympathy over the vain longings of the moth.)

5.

From the thought of you the lover's spirit attains a movement of joy,

The way movement is created in the candle flame by the breeze.

(The way a candle flame moves from the splendour-scattering of the breeze, in the same way at the thought of you the spirit quivers with joy.)

(Splendour-scattering of the breeze, and the wing-fluttering of the candle. Both are so lovely and apt. The even sound pretty good in English, but truly ravishing in Urdu.)

6. 

Do not ask me about the state of happiness and joy of the wound of the grief of passion, it has the mood of spring season,

The way a candle is extinguished by a snuffer, in the same way the lover is martyred by the wound of passion.

(In the wound of passion such paramount pleasure is hidden that floweringness has given up a thousand lives for it.)

(What could be more autumnal to the candle than a snuffer.)

(Impassion all the paramount pleasure is for the dying.)

7.

Having seen me at the beloved's pillow, it keeps burning with envy,

It seems that the candle too is the beloved's lover and considers me its rival. I have the suspicious about the candle.

(When passion reaches a level of perfection, then a man begins to take offence at his own shadow.)

(The lover and the candle, eying each other darkly, in the beloved's chamber, feeling injured by each other's presence.)

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