Ghazal 86, Verse 9


va;hshat-o-sheftah ab mar;siyah kahve;N shaayad
mar gayaa ;Gaalib-e aashuftah-navaa kahte hai;N

1) 'Vahshat'/wildness/madness and 'Sheftah'/distracted/mad now might perhaps compose/say an elegy
2) Ghalib of the disordered/wretched voice/song has died, they say


kahve;N is a variant form of kahe;N (GRAMMAR)


The theme of dying is extremely effective. For this reason the Preacher too colors his speech with this theme. And the poet too is pleased to do the same thing. Sheftah, author of the 'Anthology of Poets' [ta;zkirah-e shu((araa], is a famous connoisseur of poetry. (85-86)

== Nazm page 85; Nazm page 86

Bekhud Dihlavi:

By 'Sheftah' is meant Navab Mustafa Khan Bahadur 'Sheftah', a noble of Jahangirabad. And by 'Vahshat' is probably meant Ghulam 'Ali Khan Sahib 'Vahshat'. They both were Mirza Sahib's shagirds, but more than shagirds, they were Mirza Sahib's loyal admirers. After the death of Momin Sahib, both those gentlemen used to obtain advice about poetry from Mirza Sahib alone. (136)


aashuftah-navaa = sayer of confused things. The reason he has used these words for his style is that they have a relationship and association with va;hshat and sheftah .... Vahshat and Sheftah were both poets, Mirza's contemporaries and his special friends and companions. (173)


SPEAKING: {14,4}

What excellent use he makes of his friends' pen-names! Not only do 'Vahshat' and 'Sheftah' have a common association with wildness, madness, and so on, but they also have an elegant affinity with aashuftah in the second line; in fact sheftah and aashuftah come from the same Persian root.

So now that they 'say' that Ghalib of the disordered voice/song is dead, perhaps Madness and the Distracted One will 'say' or compose an elegy for him-- what could be more appropriate? Perhaps Distraction itself will compose the most fitting elegy to such a disordered poet. (Just as {57} is full of equally abstract and extravagant reactions to the lover's death.)

Or, of course, perhaps two of Ghalib's close friends and shagirds will compose an elegy after his death. It is even possible to read the second line as being spoken by Vahshat and Sheftah, rather than by the usual generalized 'they'. Perhaps the two poets are beginning to plan out their elegy, and ;Gaalib-e aashuftah-navaa is one of the phrases they are thinking about including.