Ghazals of Iqbal

TRANS. BY DR. S. A. DURRANI

1. Be intoxicated by the Dervish spirit - and breathe it again and again: And when you are ripe - take on the Emperor’s might!

2. Powers that be said: Does our world agree with you? I said: No, it does not. They said: Then go and smash it!

3. I saw that in the Tavern, there was no match for me; Go, challenge the Rostams of the world - do not consort with the Ganymedes.

4. O tulip of the desert, do not burn in solitude: Take your fiery heart, and burn a man’s breast therewith.

5. You are its inner burning; you are the heat of its blood; If you do not believe - go and rend the body of the Universe.

6. If Intellect is your lamp - put it by the wayside; If love is your wine-cup, share it with one who knows!

7. Drop by drop I shed my heart’s blood from my eyes; Each drop a Ruby of Badakhshan - gather it and set it in your signet ring!

1. Life means: to create a pearl from your own inner oyster It is: to go into the heart of the flame, and not to melt down.

2. “Love” is: to fly out of this Dome, whose doors are all locked;

It is: to fling down the wine-glass Moon from the alcove of Heaven.

3. Kingliness is: to throw out of hand all the riches of heart and faith;

It is: with one throw of the dice to gamble away your life and to win the Cosmos.

4. Science and philosophy require the courage of a Man; It means: to draw the sword of intellect in front of this world and the next.

5. The religion of those with lively minds is not just a wild dream - It is: to build, out of this Dust, a Brave New World!

1. May my tears of blood turn Arabia into a Tulip Garden-May my breath bring springtide to the faded rose of Pars!

2. Life is naught but burning, and burning is sans end; May all the atoms of my dust become so many throbbing hear’

3. Nor finds it rest by the wayside, nor at destination rest:

My heart! O my journeying heart! May God be your friend!

4. Beware of the intellect that paints all with hopelessness - It enchants our heart with a music that comes from a broken chord.

5. You are an unbaked youth - my song is all a flame May the Ghazal that I sing bring you perfection!

6. If you look into my soul, you find therein naught but the wish: - Oh! may your drops of dew turn into a boundless Sea!

7. May your soul find not a moment of rest! May the secret burning and yearning of Life be revealed unto you!

1. by should I ask the learned: what was my beginning? For what troubles me is: where shall be my ending?

2. Raise your Selfhood so high, that before each destiny - God should ask his servant: how would you rather be?

3. Why debate with me whether I am an alchemist? The fire of my breath is all my alchemy!

4. I saw in them the depths of my fate; Ask me not, O companion, what I saw in those dark eyes,

5. Had that Frankish mystic (I) lived in my time

I, O Iqbal, would have explained to him the station of Godhead.

6. My morning-cry rent my heart, and made it bleed; What fault, O Almighty, was it that led to this chastisement?