Word Meaning
गुल-चीनी
gul-cheenii
Meaning
The act of plucking or gathering flowers; picking blossoms.
Detailed Meaning
Literally meaning the plucking or harvesting of flowers, this compound is often used metaphorically in Urdu poetry. In Ghalib's couplet, the executioner's slaughter—which splatters droplets of the lover's blood onto his garment—is sarcastically likened to the delicate art of gathering red roses in a garden.
Etymology
Persian: compound of 'gul' (rose/flower) + 'cheen' (plucking, root of chīdan) + abstract nominal suffix '-ī'.
Usage
Frequently used in ghazals to evoke the delicate gathering of beauty or, through bitter poetic irony, the violent destruction wrought by a hunter or executioner.
Examples
The gardener was absorbed in the flower-picking of the dawn.
In that season of cruelty, his slaughter seemed like flower-gathering.