mirza asadullah KhaaN Ghalib (1797-1869).  I dare not write any introduction.  On more than one occasion Ghalib has warned his readers that he needs no introduction or even address.   I humbly comply.  kalidas gupta raza dates this Ghazal to 1816, when Ghalib would have been 19 years old.  There is one more Ghazal in the same zamin dated 1847.  By this time, he may have been attending mushaa’era at the Red Fort.  There are Ghazal composed in the same zamin by aazurda, shefta and momin (two each).  All are collected and linked to the same icon.
1
jis jaa¹ keh paa²-e sail³-e balaa⁴ darmiyaaN⁵ nahiN
diivaanagaaN⁶ ko vaaN havas⁷-e KhaanumaaN⁸ nahiN

1.place, occasion 2.feet, footprints, marks, indications, traces, clues 3.flood 4.calamities 5.middle 6.mad, passionate 7.desire 8.household

The place where there are no traces of a flood of calamities, there mad/passionate lovers do not desire to set up a household i.e., crossing/overcoming floods of calamities is an essential part of life.  This is probably why I continue to struggle in trying to decipher early obscure compositions of the Ghalib which he de-selected from his later diivaan.
2
kis jurm¹ se hai chashm² tujhe hasrat³-e qubool⁴
barg⁵-e hina⁶ magar⁷ mizsha⁸-e KhooN-fashaaN⁹ nahiN

1.transgression, sin 2.eye, expectation 3.yearning 4.acceptance, pleading guilty 5.leaf 6.henna 7.but 8.eyelashes 9.blood dripping

In urdu poetic tradition the beloved’s glances are like arrows and they pierce the heart or liver and poet cries tears of blood.  The henna leaf is pounded into a wet paste which creates a red colour like blood.  Also, the beloved is not satisfied with the colour given by henna.  She wants to enrich that colour with the poet/lover’s blood.  The leaf of the henna is not like your blood dripping eyes, it does not give the required colour.  Love demands that the poet/lover offer such blood.  Has your eye not done so.  Is your transgression that your eyes are not dripping blood and that is why you are left yearning for acceptance/forgiveness by the beloved or pleading guilty to this crime.  In this reading the “you” is the poet/lover.
gyaan chand jain offers this interpretation – chashm/eye represents expectation or hope.  You are expectant/hopeful that your yearning for acceptance/forgiveness will be fulfilled.  What is the crime for which you seek forgiveness?  The fact that you have applied henna is nothing but an indication of your blood-dripping eyes – eyes that are crying tears of blood in shame/regret.  In this interpretation the “you” could well be the beloved (for all her cruelties) or humanity (for all its frailties).
3
har raNg¹-e gardish² aaiina³-iijaad⁴-e dard⁵ hai
ashk⁶-e sahaab⁷ juz⁸ ba-vidaa’⁹-e KhizaaN¹⁰ nahiN

1.colour, style, facet 2.movement, change 3.reflection 4.invention, creation, revelation 5.pain, sorrow 6.tears 7.cloud 8.except for 9.resulting from bidding farewell 10.dry season

Every facet of change brings ‘dard/pain’, it is the reflection/image/revelation of pain.  Look at what happens when spring clouds come.  Spring showers are nothing but the clouds shedding tears of pain upon bidding farewell to KhizaaN – the dry season.  Thus, even progress brings pain with it.
4
juz¹ ijz² kya karuN ba-tamanna³-e be-Khudi⁴
taaqat⁵ hariif⁶-e saKhti⁷-e Khwaab-e-giraaN⁸ nahiN

1.except for 2.helplessness, acceptance 3.for the desire of 4.(sufiyaana) trance 5.power, capacity 6.equal to stand up to 7.hardness, cruelty 8.deep sleep

The poet/sufi has an intense desire for “be-Khudi” – the sufiyaana trance by which he can lose his own identity and merge himself with the great spirit.  “Khwaab-e giraaN” – deep sleep is used here as another expression of be-Khudi.  Except for helplessness, what can I do about my (unfulfilled) desire to achieve “be-Khudi”.  I do not have strength that is equal to stand up to the demands of deep sleep.
5
ibrat¹ se poochh dard²-e pareshaani³-e nigaah⁴
ye gard⁵-e vahm⁶ juz⁷ ba-sar⁸-e imtehaaN⁹ nahiN

1.warning, admonition, lesson 2.pain 3.confusion, distraction 4.sight, glance 5.dust, fog 6.illusion 7.except for 8.head of, beginning of 9.test

Be warned, take a lesson from the pain caused by the distraction of your eyes.  Your eyes look at the material world and get distracted.  The material world is nothing but a fog of illusion, the beginning of a test to see if you can focus of the spiritual.
6
gul¹ Ghunchagii² meN Gharqa³-e darya⁴-e raNg⁵ hai
aye aagahii⁶ fareb⁷-e tamaashaa⁸ kahaaN nahiN

1.rose 2.the state of an unblossomed flower, bud-ness 3.drowned, immersed 4.sea 5.colour 6.awareness, (material) knowledge 7.deception 8.(tempting/attractive) show/display (of the material world), cosmos

One possible intepretation – the rose, even in its state of “Ghunchagi – bud-ness” is drowned in a sea of colour (sights and sounds, temptations of the material world).  O awareness (the desire to see this material world), beware, the deception of this display is everywhere – right from birth.  The bud blooms (opens its eyes to see) and soon fades away.  Second reading – the rose, even its budding stage is colourful and beautiful to look at.  We anticipate that it will bloom and become even more beautiful.  It does bloom but it sooms fades away.  O awareness, beware, the deception of transient beauty is everywhere.
7
barq¹-e ba-jaan²-e hausla³ aatish-figan⁴ asad⁵
aye dil-fasurda⁶! taaqat⁷-e zabt⁸-e fuGhaaN⁹ nahiN

1.lightning strike 2.for the life of 3.fortitude, courage, desire 4.dropping fire on, setting fire to 4.penname of the poet 6.dejected heart 7.strength 8.control, forbearance 9.wailing, lamentation

The lightning that strikes the life/soul of fortitude sets fire it, O asad.  O dejected heart, there is no strength left to control/hold back my laments.  What is the lightning that is striking the soul of his fortitude?  What is the lament that he is unable to hold back? There is a distinct possibility that the lament he is unable to hold back is his shaa’eri.  It is because of this intense pain that composes/recites.  The lightning itself could be the realization of human inability to gracefully accept transience of material life, inability to resist involvement in the material world and of the separation from the great spirit, which has been a running theme in earlier ash’aar.