गलत-बर-दार

Meaning

Erasing errors; paper or a tool that effaces writing or mistakes.

Detailed Meaning

Literally denoting something that lifts or rubs off an error, such as scraping paper or an eraser knife. In Ghalib's couplet, it functions as an ironic conceit: the beloved's stationary is described as naturally erasing errors, implying the word of faithfulness was effaced because the paper considered it an inaccuracy.

Etymology

Arabic 'ghalat' (error, mistake) + Persian 'bardār' (present stem of bardāshtan, to bear, lift, or remove).

Usage

Used in classical ghazal poetry as a clever scribal metaphor attributing betrayal or erasure of vows to the nature of paper itself.

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