Where would these carefree children find salt to sprinkle on my wounds? How wonderful it would be if stones, too, contained salt!

In this witty and evocative verse, Ghalib explores the madness of love and the paradoxical joy of suffering. Drawing on the classic ghazal trope of the crazed lover being pelted with stones by playful children in the streets, he humorously laments an imperfection in his torment. The stones tear his flesh, but the children carry no salt to sprinkle on the cuts—how magnificent it would be if stones naturally contained salt, instantly intensifying his agony into pure ecstasy! It is a brilliant portrait of a lover so deeply intoxicated by pain that he hungers for even more.