For those who have joined now, let me say few words about this Ghalib series. 

Ghalib, his ghazals, his poems, his genius, and his wits have always fascinated millions of Urdu lovers including myself. Those who want to receive my previous seven installments; I shall email them just for asking. My email address is asgharf@adelphia.net

This is my 8^th  installment.  I have received excellent response from lot of friends: both Urdu and non-Urdu speakers. Please know that this is my own, Asghar Vasanwala’s, work; it is not a forwarding of someone else’s work as some of you thought. Please forward this to your friends. Also please send me your comments/complements; I will appreciate that. 

Here is today’s verse (she'r), in Gujarati script, Urdu script and also in Roman script. This is the 4th verse of Ghalib’s 4^th Ghazal. We are skipping 3rd verse: Dost dar-e-dushman hai………

Sadgi = simplicity, benign-looks purkari = pretending, cunning or dhong in Urdu

Be-khudi = not paying attention, lost in other thoughts    taGhaful = Ghaflat = carelessness, inattention

Jura’at = courage, guts         aazmaN = testing     Jura’at aazmaN= gut testing

 This is a beautiful verse: simple construction, beautiful wording, and rhyming music.

Ghalib is describing a scenario when he is watching his beloved (from a hiding). He finds that she is lost in thoughts, and not paying attention to her surroundings, her hair blown by breeze and curves exposed. How can he control himself? He thinks that it is easy to steal a touch of her unfurled hair or at least have a closer peek at her; however, Ghalib warns himself: Beware! Looks are misleading; her simplicity and benign-looks, in reality, are cunningness, pretending, or a “dhong”. Her inattention is actually a ruse to test your spirit and guts.

Ghalib bears out the fact that inattentive beauty is always gut-testing. Try to approach an inviting and benign looking rose; thorns may hurt you. You must approach beauty with care and respect!

If we take this verse to higher level of true love, called ishq-e-haqiqi in Sufism terminology, it makes a different meaning. God is beauty and he is in everything. God, to us, seems inattentive and unaware. This tempts us to do things we are not supposed to do as per laws of love. Yet, many situations are so tempting and gut testing that we can’t control our impulses and do things that we are not supposed to do. We pay price for those unbecoming behaviors. God’s Bekhudi is actually Hushyari.

Please note the wordings of this verse. Ghalib has used opposite words called “tazad”

Sadgi‘s opposite is purkari; Bekhudi’s opposite is hushyari. In second misr'a (line) he uses a new word “taghaful” to describe inattention; he doesn’t repeat the word be-khudi from the first line.