Word Meaning
जौहर-ग़ुबार
jauhar-ġhubār
Meaning
Dust or cloudiness arising from the grain of a polished steel mirror.
Detailed Meaning
A Persian-Arabic compound denoting the fine metallic powder or hazy grain ('jauhar') found on the surface of a polished steel mirror. In classical poetry, it metaphorically represents vision dimmed by its own intensity or a reflective surface turned into a desolate, dusty landscape. In Ghalib's couplet, the hall of mirrors has been transformed by overwhelming yearning into a hazy desert valley choked with its own substance.
Etymology
From Arabic 'jawhar' (essence, jewel, grain of steel, via Persian 'gauhar') + Arabic 'ghubār' (dust, haze).
Usage
A characteristic idiom of the Sabk-e-Hindi (Indian style) poetic school, famously favored by Bedil and Ghalib to construct complex visual metaphors of longing and obscurity.
Examples
The reflective surface remained shrouded in jauhar-ghubar.
A sight obscured by the jauhar-ghubar of unfulfilled desire.