Allama Muhammad Iqbal
The Candle and The Moth
O Candle! I am also an afflicted person in the world assembly
Constant complaint is my lot in the manner of the rue
Love gave the warmth of internal pathos to you
It made me the florist selling blood-mixed tears
Whether you be the candle of a celebrating assembly or one at the grave
In every condition associated with the tears of sorrow you remain
Your eye views all with equity like the Secret’s Lovers
My eye is the pride of the tumult of discrimination
Your illumination is alike in the Ka‘bah and the temple
I am entangled in the temple and the Haram’s discrimination
Your black smoke contains the sigh’s elegance
Is some heart hidden in the place of your manifestation?
You burn with pathos due to distance from Tajalli’s
Your pathos the callous ones consider your light
Though you are burning you are unaware of it all
You see but do not encompass the internal pathos
I quiver like mercury with the excitement of vexation
As well I am aware of vexations of the restless heart
This was also the elegance of some Beloved
Which gave me perception of my own pathos
This cognition of mine keeps me restless
Innumerable fire temples are asleep in this spark
Discrimination between high and low is created by this alone!
Fragrance in flower, ecstasy in wine is created by this alone!
Garden, nightingale, flower, fragrance this Cognition is
Root of the struggle of ‘I and you’ this Cognition is
At creation’s dawn as Beauty became the abode of Love
The sound of “Kun” taught warmth to the spirit of Love
The command came Beauty of Kun’s garden to witness
With one eye a thousand dreadful dreams to witness
Do not ask me of the nature of the veil of being
The eve of separation was the dawn of my being
Gone are the days when unaware of imprisonment I was
That my abode the adornment of the tree of Tur was
I am a prisoner but consider the cage to be a garden
This exile’s hovel of sorrow I consider the homeland
Memories of the homeland a needless melancholy became
Now the desire for sight, now Longing for search became
O Candle ! Look at the excessive illusion of thought
Look at the end of the one worshipped by celestial denizens
Theme of separation I am, the exalted one I am
Design of the Will of the Universe’s Lord I am
He desired my display as He designed me
When at the head of Existence’ Diwan He wrote me
The pearl likes living in a handful of dust
Style may be dull the subject is excellent
Not seeing it rightly is the fault of short-sighted perception
The universe is the show of effulgence of taste for Cognizance
This network of time and space is the scaling ladder of the Universe
It is the necklace of the neck of Eternal Beauty
I have lost the way, Longing for the goal I am
O Candle ! Captive of perception’s illusion I am
I am the hunter as well as the circle of tyranny’s net !
I am the Haram’s roof as well as the bird on Haram’s roof
Am I the Beauty or head to foot the melting love am I ?
It is not clear whether the beloved or the Lover am I ?
I am afraid the old secret may come up to my lips again
Lest story of suffering on the Cross may come up again
The Traveler's Request
What angels recite is your exalted name
Your threshold is exalted, your munificence is gerneral
The stars are stable by the attraction of your Love
Your system is like the system of the sun
The pilgrimage to your tomb is life for the heart
Your status is higher than those of Masih and Khidar
The Beloved’s Nature is veiled in your Love
High is your dignity, exalted is your veneration
If my heart has a stain the stain is of your love
But if cheerful I am, I am the rose of your spring
Leaving the garden I have come out like the rose of your fragrance
I am determined to go through the test of perseverance
I have started with zeal from the homeland’s tavern
The pleasure of the wine of knowledge is speeding me up
I am gazing at the mercy’s cloud, I am the wilderness tree
With the Mercy of God I am not in need of the gardener
May I be living elegantly in the world like the sun
May I be bestowed with that ladder by your blessings
May I be so far ahead of the fellow travelers
That I may be regarded as the destination by the caravan
May my pen not hurt anybody’s feelings
May I have complaint against none under the sun
Whose effect may penetrate the hearts like a comb
May I receive such a clamor from your threshold
The nest I had made by picking up bits and pieces
May I see the same nest in the garden again
May I come back to put my forehead at my parents’ feet
Whose efforts made me the confidante of love
That candle of the audience of the Holy Prophet’s descendants4
Whose threshold I will always consider like the haram
Whose breath opened the flower bud of my longing
By whose benevolence I became sagacious
Pray to the terrestrial and the celestial world’s Lord
That I may again become happy with paying homage to him
That second Yusuf 5 to me, that candle of Love’s assembly
Whose brotherly love has given soul’s tranquillity to me
Who in his love, destroying the book of you and I
Has brought me up to my youth in the environment of happiness
May he remain happy in the world like rose
Whom I have always held dearer than my life
Blooming, my heart’s bud may become a flower!
May this traveler’s request be accepted!
On The Banks of The Ravi
In the evening’s serenity the Ravi melodious is
Do not ask me what the condition of my heart is
This became message of prostrations rise and fall to me
The whole world became precincts of the haram to me
I am standing at the bank of the running water
However, I do not know where I am standing
The red wine has colored the skirt of the evening
The aged sky is holding wine cup in its trembling hand
The day’s fast moving caravan is advancing to its end
The evening’s twilight is the sun’s flower so to say
In the distance those solitary structures are standing
They are the minarets of the Mughal emperors’ tombs
This place is the tale of revolution’s tyranny
This place is some book of the bygone age
This place is a silent orchestra so to say
Not trees ! But it is a serene assembly so to say
A fast moving boat is sailing on its surface
Whose sailor is fighting fiercely with the waves
This boat is in fast speed like the sight
Getting out of sight, it has gone far away
The ship of Man’s life is sailing in the same way
It is present as well as hidden in eternity’s sea
It never gets acquainted with defeat
It is concealed from sight but is not effaced !
The Child And The Candle
O Child with moth-like nature , “How strange that
You keep gazing at the flame of the candle for hours
What is this movement, when you are in my lap?
Are you intending to embrace the light?
Though your tiny heart is surprised at this spectacle
But this is recognition of some object already seen!1
The candle is but a flame, you are the Light embodied
Ah! In this assembly that is manifest, you are concealed 2
It is not known why the Nature’s hand made it manifest!
And concealed you in the dark soil’s mantle
Your light has been concealed under the veil of Intellect! 3
The veil of Cognition is a mere mist to the wise eye!
What is called life really a mirage it is
A dream, a swoon, an ecstasy, oblivion it is
The Nature’s assembly is the Beauty’s boundless ocean
For the discerning eye every drop is the Beauty’s storm
Beauty is in the frightening silence of the mountain
In shedding of sun’s light, and in night’s darkness
It is in the morning sky’s mirror-like glitter
In the night’s darkness and in the twilight’s floridity
It is in the disappearing relics of the old magnificence
In the small child’s effort to commence speaking
It is in the harmony of the denizens of the rose-garden
In the nest-building efforts of the tiny little birds
In the mountain stream, in the ocean’s freedom is Beauty
In the city, the forest, the wilderness, the habitation is Beauty
The soul but longing for some lost object is
Or else why is it lamenting in wilderness like a bell ?
It is restless even in this general splendor of Beauty
Its life is like a fish out of water
A Bird And the Fire-Fly
Early in the evening a song bird
Sitting on a branch was singing
It saw a glowing object on the ground
Considering it a fire fly flew down to it
The fire-fly said to the singing bird
“O singing bird, do not kill a helpless creature,
Who gave chirping to you, and fragrance to the rose
The same God gave the glittering light to me
I am clad in the apparel of light
I am the ñur of the insects’ world
If your chirping is the ear’s pleasure
My brightness also is the sight’s pleasure
Nature has given light to my wings
It has given fascinating voice to you
He taught singing to your beak
He made me the torch of the garden
He bestowed glitter upon me, voice upon you
Conferred warmth upon me and music upon you
Warmth is not the opposite of music
Everywhere warmth is the associate of music
The assembly of existence is based on these alone
All the world’s manifestations are through these alone
The world’s assembly is based on harmony alone
The bloom of this garden is based on this alone
The Cloud
Today dark clouds have appeared from the east again
Mount Sarban has become covered with darkness again
As the sun’s face became hidden under the clouds
Cool breeze also came riding on the steed of clouds
There are no thunder claps, silent are these clouds
Strange in its tranquillity is this tavern of dark clouds
It has brought everlasting joy’s message for the garden
It has come to stitch pearls to the jacket of rose
The flowers which were fading by sun’s heat freshened up
Those which were sleeping in the earth’s bosom woke up
With the wind’s force the cloud rose, advanced and flowed
Some dark clouds rose up, the clouds burst open into rain!
The camp of the mountains’ trees is wonderful
Strollers in valleys should stay among its trees