THE DEW AND THE STARS
Introduction
In
this poem ‘All«mah Iqb«l has gone on a flight of poetic imagination. The
inhabitants of the celestial world do not know anything about the terrestrial
world and its inhabitants. Dew is the only entity which visits both these
worlds. So the stars ask the dew about terrestrial world and its affairs. They
are surprised to hear about the anomalies of the earthly life which, in their
opinion, was all good.
Translation
One
night stars started saying this to the dew
“Every morning new sights are available to you
Who knows how many worlds you have seen!
Relics of those who rose and fell you have seen
Venus has heard this news from an angel
That human habitation is very far from the sky
Tell us the tale of this beautiful realm
The ode of whose love the moon sings”
“O stars ! Do not ask me about the earth’s garden
A place of sighs and wailing it is, not a garden
The zephyr comes from there only to return
The poor flower-bud opens only to wither
What can I tell you how garden-brightening the flower-bud is
Some little flame without warmth the flower-bud is
The rose cannot hear the nightingale’s call
It cannot pick up the pearls from my skirt
The melodious birds are imprisoned, it is outrageous
The thorns grow just under the rose, it is outrageous
The eye of the sick narcissus always remains wet
The heart longs for sight, but the eye is sightless
The elm tree is tormented with the heat of complaint
The elm tree is nominally free but is really a prisoner
The stars are the sparks of sighs to the human eye
In the rose garden’s language I am only lament’s cry
Circumambulation of moon round the earth ignorance is
It thinks there the cure for its scar of Love is
The foundation of the world’s abode is in the air1
It is the picture of lament on the sheet of space !”