हज़ारों ख़्वाहिशें ऐसी - Part 2

Dare kyu.n meraa qaatil kyaa rahegaa uskii gardan pe

Vuh Khoo.n jo chashm e tar se umr bhar yoo.n dam ba dam nikle

Why should my murderer fear, what will remain on her neck?

That blood which flows from my wet eyes continuously throughout my life

Chashm means eye tar means moist or wet. Dam ba Dam literally means moment by moment or breath by breath. But the figurative meaning is continuously, incessantly.

So the poet is egging the tormentor (the beloved) to go ahead and kill him. He is further trying to convince her that there will be no incriminating evidence. The blood which would otherwise have literally fallen on her neck (or figuratively the murder rap on her head) has continually flowed from wet eyes as long as the poet lived and by the time he dies most of the blood would have flown out. The remaining blood would be further diluted by the wet eyes through which they pass and hence the chance of something being thick enough to incriminate the lover is less.

The wet eyes is a fatalistic acknowledgement of a life full of misery (probably caused by the beloved). The continuous flow of blood from the eyes has been expressed elsewhere in Ghalib’s Diwaan.

RaGo.n me.n dauDte phirne ke hum nahee.n qaayal

Jab aankh hee se na Tapkaa to phir lahoo kyaa hai

So Ghaalib clearly believes that the blood’s primary purpose in the body is to flow through the eyes and not through the veins as the biology teachers would have us believe. This is one of the lighter couplets of this Ghazal.

Bharam khul jaaye zaalim tere qaamat kee daraazii kaa

Agar us turrah-e-purpech-o-Kham kaa pech-o-Kham nikle

O tormentor, the claims of your tall stature would stand exposed

If that curly forelock of hair unwinds and reveals its full length

Bharam means reputation and bharam khulnaa means to be exposed

Qaamat means form stature or height

Daraazii means length

Turrah is a tuft of hair, a forelock

Pech is turn or coil

Kham is a bend or a knot

Pech o Kham is a tautological repetition for effect.

Pur indicates full of

I interpret this as the poet suggesting that your claim/reputation of being tall would stand exposed if the curly hair uncurled. So he is praising the height of the woman as well as her long hair in one fell swoop.

magar likhvaae koii us ko Khat to ham se likhvaae

huii subh aur ghar se kaan par rakh kar qalam nikle

No difficult words in this couplet.

Quite simple in meaning too.

But if anyone has to get a letter written to her then I should be the letter-writer

At the crack of dawn, I tuck a pen behind my ear and set out in the quest for such customers

I remember that in one scene in Aakhri Raastaa, Sridevi was supposed to say I love you to Amitabh. Sridevi initially got her portions dubbed by Rekha but was trying to come out of that phase and start speaking in that now famous voice. But Rekha insisted on dubbing it. She said (and I am quoting from memory of having read this in a Filmfare) that if anyone has to say those three sacred words to him, it has to be me. I guess that kind of sums up the meaning of this couplet for me. But it brings back memory of our early days DTC bus conductors who would have a leather hand pouch where they would keep tickets and money. And there was a pen tucked behind the ear. The other professional who would tuck the pen behind the ear would be the postman. Nowadays it is very hard to find anyone doing this. I have seen some carpenters and tailors keeping their marker pens tucked like this. But an educated person would rarely be seen these days in such a pose.