Ashk

A tear; tears.

Literally: tear, teardrop

Ashk is the tear in its Persianate register — the same weeping as aansu, but dressed in the higher diction of the classical ghazal. The lover is ashkbaar, raining tears; his ashk are bloody (ashk-e-khoon) from a heart worn raw. As both grief and ornament, the tear is the lover's jewel and his confession: the visible overflow of a longing too great for the eyes to hold.