Word Meaning
मलख़
malakh
Meaning
a locust or grasshopper
Detailed Meaning
Malakh refers to a locust, an insect notorious for swarming and devouring standing agricultural crops. In classical verse, it serves as an emblem of ruin and natural calamity that destroys the reward of human toil. In Ghalib's verse, it illustrates the inevitability of misfortune: even if the locust does not eat the standing field, fire will inevitably consume the collected harvest.
Etymology
Persian (ملخ / malax), meaning locust or grasshopper.
Usage
In ghazal poetry, it is paired typically with motifs of cultivation (kisht, khirman) to symbolize inevitable deprivation or external calamity ruining hard-earned fortune.
Examples
The swarm of locusts left behind nothing but barren soil.
Though spared by the locust, the crop succumbed to fire.