Meher Afshan Faruqi mangling Ghalib's chasm-e-ghazaal

Consider the following rejected matla from Ghalib's ghazal 112

hoon bah vehshat, intizar aavarah-e-dasht-e khayaal
ik sefadi maarti hai dur se, chashm-e ghazaal

My translation is- 

 Maddened, my vagabond vigil sees me flee further into desert wastes where but Thoughts dwell

Till, from afar, a glitter of whiteness strikes me down- Ah! The eye of the gazelle!

This isn't very good. I think a pious Muslim would naturally associate this couplet not with the 'whiteness' of the Houris or the beauty of the beloved's eyes, but more importantly with the compassion the Holy Prophet showed a sleeping gazelle, which had been struck with an arrow, at al-Utayah. This was during the first sacred 'Hajj'. It is noteworthy that at this time the Prophet (pbuh) had reiterated that asking too many questions will impose greater and more unbearable burdens upon you. But this has to do with what is imperative, not what is alethic. Think as much as you like about factual matters- i.e. what is or isn't the case- so as to be more useful to the community. Don't pursue barren Thoughts about what should be the case and would be the case if the Universe didn't fucking hate you. 

I suppose, you could say that when an ignorant infidel, like me, tries to translate what is beautiful in the oeuvre of the pious, the result is bound to be ugly. 

Meher Afshan Faruqi offers this translation- 

'Crazed with waiting I roam the arid wilderness of the mind In solitary anticipation; The gazelle’s eye is a white speck In the distance'

Many of us get crazed with waiting in a queue at the DMV or, worse yet, a queue for the toilet. We may indeed 'roam arid wildernesses of the mind' while anticipating getting to empty our bladder or bowels- hopefully in the solitude of a toilet cubicle rather than on the pavement. But what has this to do with a gazelle's eye? The fact is, you can't see the white of its eye if it is really far away. I suppose, if you are a hunter, you may say to yourself 'I mustn't discharge my weapon till I can see the white of its eye. This is because it would be out of range.' But hunters aren't 'crazed with waiting'. Also they need to be alert. Their mind has to be focused on the task at hand- viz. killing a deer so as to eat it. 

Why is Farooqi's translation even uglier than mine? The answer is that she does not draw on her own Muslim heritage preferring to cite stupid commentators from a period when it was fashionable to be as atheistic as possible. 

Kantoori: Like a disappointed lover I roam in the wilderness of imagination; just as a hunter runs after a gazelle upon seeing a glimpse of the white of its eye.

No hunter has done any such thing. 

MAF: An extraordinary she’r with layers of meaning and evocative imagery.

Because being stricken by the whiteness of the gazelle's eye puts us in mind of the Holy Prophet's compassion upon the stricken, sleeping, deer his party encountered during the first sacred Hajj. Otherwise, the verse isn't particularly good.  It may be that there was some religious reason why it would have been considered indecent or inappropriate to make the connection I, being an ignorant kaffir, am making, and that is why this matla was rejected. However, why not draw the English speaker's attention to a particular episode which pious Muslims would be aware of and which inculcates a message of universal compassion? The fact is the conduct of God's Messenger enables even the crazy sinful nutter, or Socioproctologist, to have hope that God's Mercy will find him even if, struck by Cupid's arrow, he awaits death in some rocky defile in Thought's desert? 

Kantoori’s reading is appealing in that it paints a poignant picture of a disappointed lover.

Beyonce didn't come to my birthday party though I lurve her and want to be her bestest friend for ever and ever. What 'poignant picture' does this statement of mine paint? There's generally a good reason why particular lovers are disappointed. In my case, it is because I am ugly, stupid, and as poor as fuck.  

I prefer to go further with the dasht-e khiyal motif.

 Which references Majnoon, whom the gazelles flocked to, and the Hubb al Udhri tradition. 

The gazelle runs fast but the speaker of the poem has outdistanced the gazelle in the valley of imagination [dasht-e khiyal]

No, he hasn't. If he had, he would say 'when I turn and look back, I see the eye of the gazelle far away behind me'. Also why does 'whiteness' hit the dude like an arrow? If he really is so fast at running, surely he could outdistance it?  

so much so that only the whites of the eyes can be made out.

Very true. If a deer is very far away, you won't be able to see its legs or its neck. Only the white of the eye will be visible. Strangely, the same phenomenon does not arise with people. They have to come quite close before you can see the white of their eyes or the black hair growing out of their nostrils.  

The gazelle runs away because it is vahshi, or wild, scared, shy, unsociable, untamed etc.

Also, for some reason, it objects to being killed and eaten.  

The conceit is that whites of the eyes become prominent when one rolls the eyes, a sign of distress or vahshat, madness if you will.

Only if you are close to the person in question. If he is far away, you may notice that he is jumping around like a maniac. You won't be able to tell if he is rolling his eyes or squinting.  

Thus the gazelle and the speaker are both terrified, bewildered vahshatzadah creatures.

Because dudes who recite ghazals are actually deer. We wish they would just fucking run away already.  

The speaker is running in world of ideas.

Thoughts- maybe. Ideas- not so much.  

Ghalib the master poet has juxtaposed the two images, of thoughts running wild and the gazelle running wild.

But he has done so in a particular context. The eye of the gazelle is the arrow of whiteness which strikes down the demented poet. We are reminded of the wounded gazelle upon whom the Holy Prophet showed compassion during the desert journey that was the first sacred Hajj.  Majnoon too is associated with the wild animals of the desert which often turned up to his cocktail parties where they expressed their distaste for Neo-Liberalism. 

Safedi marna also means to see a spark at a distance. It can be compared to the spark of a new idea.

What is that idea? I think it has to do with the stricken gazelle the Prophet, peace be upon Him, safeguarded at al-Uthayah. Many Muslims may never be able to perform Hajj. Still they can hear the tale of the first such sacred journey and gain great consolation.  

Intizar avarah is a new expression.

Combining as it does the notions of vagabondage and vigil. We are reminded of Majnoon and the Hubb al Udhri tradition.  

The exact meaning of vahshat’s polysemy is difficult to capture in English.

If your English is crap- sure. Otherwise, the context supplies the mot juste.  

Its poetic potential is mined fully by Ghalib and ghazal poetry in general.

Not for these cretins. Why? They reject Islam as the source and foundation of all that is most beautiful and heart-purifying of the great works of art created by Muslims.