Persian · noun · Iqbal's Emblems

Gaisu

गेसू
said GE-soo
also written: Gesu, Gaisoo, gesoo, gaisu, gesu-e
Meaning

Long, flowing locks or ringlets of hair.

Literally: tresses, long curling locks

How Iqbal uses it

Gesu are the beloved's flowing tresses — the long dark curls that the lover is forever caught in. In the ghazal the hair is a snare, a chain, a dark night where the heart wanders lost and is glad to be lost. Mystically the dark tangle of gesu stands for the world of multiplicity and veiling — the beautiful confusion through which the seeker must pass toward the radiant face it half conceals.