Interpretation-Ghazal-78

1.
The boys consider me a madman and throws stones, and are so careless that they do not sprinkle salt on the wound,

If there had been salt in the stones or if the stones had been chunks of salt-stone, then I would have great pleasure. 

(My body would have felt the wounds and salt too would have been sprinkled on them.)

(These careless beloveds steal their lover's heart, if only they knew how to torment them and show coquetry to them as well, which are the salt in the wound of passion.)

2.

The possession of the wound in the heart is the dust of the beloved's path,

How is so much salt possible in the world about which the wound in my liver could be proud.

(Plenty of salt is produced in the world anyway, but what do we care about it, only the dust of the beloved's path is a cause for pride to the wound.)

(There is so much salt, but what good is any of it to me. I disdain and reject it all, since my own preferred salt is the dust of beloved's path.)

(Oh dust, the beloved's path is the equipment of the coquetry of the wound of the heart.)

3.

May the pain of the nightingale's lament auspicious to me,

And may the salt of the rose's smile be auspicious to you.

(I am of the people of pain, this is suitable for me. You are a lover of the pleasure of the world, may that be auspicious to you.)

(May the pain of the nightingale's lament be vouchsafed to my laments. I am content with this.)

(A complaint of being ignored, in the curtain of sarcasm.)

(The nightingale is madly in love with rose. Does rose smile despite knowing this. Is this why her smile rubs salt in the nightingale's wounds? Is he singing not only with passion but the pain of loss.)

4.

The bitterness of which madman's chains was on the seashore, that the ground of the shore too become bitterness,

And the dust that flew up from this ground and went toward the water, it too was scattering salt on the wounds of the sea wave.

(My beloved's horse was swifter than even the sea waves, and quickly responded to the reins, so that envy of this sprinkled salt in the wounds of the sea waves.)

(No matter how swift moving the ocean may be, it does not cause dust to fly. The beloved's horse does, which increases the ocean's envy.)

(Salt is a property of sea and to connect it to the salt that is sprinkled on the lover's wounds is an enjoyable notion.)

5.

When I come to mind, she also praises the wound in my liver,

And whenever my beloved sees salt, she remembers me, that is involuntarily I come to mind, and the wound in my liver which she always fills with salt/

(She is proud of me, for she has faith in my ability to endure pain, and most of all she knows me as one who craves the pleasure of suffering,)

(I am delightful at her appreciation of the wound in my liver and can give an example of her great solicitude for it.)

6.

In such a time you are going, and leaving the lover's wounded body, is a cause for regret,

When the heart is in search of more wounds, and the limbs of the body seeking salt.

(Having wounded only the body, why you are going? My heart too seeks a wound and the limbs too want a sprinkling of salt. This half finished cruelty is a cause for regret.)

(To satiate my relish for suffering, this much cruelty cannot be enough.)

(We learn the real nature of guilt, she has not sufficiently tormented her lover.)

7.

Why would I become indebted to anyone's kindness for increasing pain,

For my wound of itself, like the beloved's smile consists of salt.

(My wound itself is giving the extreme pain, what need is there of sprinkling salt on it.)

(The smile of the wound is a famous metaphor, here Ghalib has made the invention of giving it the smile of the beloved, and the cause of similitude he has declared to be its being salty. And the wound in which there is salt, how can its pain be described?)

(Shakespeare has called a wound ruby lips, because it is open like lips and is red. The smile is salty so the wound too is salty.)

(The salty smile is beautiful so the salty wound is beautiful too.)

(Now comes the world of hopelessly fused opposites, pain and joy, cruelty and kindness, in which the lover pursues his passionate madness.)

8.

Oh Ghalib, you surely remember those days when, intoxicated with your relish, you yourself filled wound with salt,

And was so careful in this task that if any grain of salt fell from the wound, then you picked it up with your eyelashes and returned it to the wound.

(In this verse two excellences have been created--(1) I was so devoted to suffering that the portion of salt that was lost from my wound, I used to ardently pick it up again and restore it to the wound. (2) There is a saying that if salt falls on the ground, it ought to be picked up with eyelashes.)

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