XI-LXVI

Who told him I smell thee ‘under the rose’,
To give him good news of a spring tide close.
When I saw not in him thy old flame’s blaze,
With a new spark I set his caneswood ablaze.¹

1.         Here Iqbal is addressing the Holy Prophet, “I have given them (my nation) a new hope to receive the Prophet’s flame of love inspite of the fact that She is passing though a process of decline, I have told them not to be disappointed.”

Caneswood=copse or coppice wood (naistan. in persian).

The poet is seeing his nation growing like under wood and not like a younes oak sapling, a scene of abject decline. (canewood frequently gives the sounds of wailings when the wind blows).

Spark or flame here it means the message of love under the rose, (Latin), Sub Rosa=means secretly.