Allama Iqbal: Miscellany
By Dr Zafar M. Iqbal
TCCI, Chicago, IL
Iqbal uses short verses, sometimes just a couple of lines, to make various philosophical observations.
At the end of ‘Payam-e-Mashriq’, which is in Persian, he grouped such verses in ‘Khurdah’, or what I term ‘Miscellany’.
Here is my translation:
Our every cell
brims with passion,
every breath we take draws us
closer to the Doomsday.
Kizer told this to Alexander: [1]
Life is hard and
death, harder.
[1] Referring to Alexander, the Great, 356- 323 BC.
Kizer, in Islamic tradition, is one of the four immortal prophets. Others are: Idris (Enoch), Ilyas (Elias) and Eesa (Jesus). Kizer is believed to be immortal because he drank from the fountain of life -- a mysterious figure who, as the legend goes, shows up to people in need.
…..
The pearl knows well
the tumults in the river but
what does it know of
getting ground in a stone mill?
…..
A hollow pen creaks
as it writes;
a solid pencil glides on
noiselessly.
……
With an idol under arm,
I circumambulated the Ka’aba
and shouted out Allah’s name
to the idols.
My heart still seeks You
though the path I am on
is narrower than
a hair’s breadth.
….
Happy is the early spring,
said a flower --
happier is a day in the garden,
than a lifetime elsewhere.
Before someone plucks it
to adorn his cap,
better to fall and die
on a garden path.
…..
Both the old and young are
a child to the poet,
how does age matter
in poetry?
…..
Three things pleasing to your eyes:
green pasture, flowing water, beautiful faces.
Silk robe, happy times and appetizing aroma,
three things not good for your looks.
…..
What can I tell you
about Life, brother ?
Dream is a short death,
death, a long sleep.
.….
If you cannot forgive those
who wronged you and
let hate take root in you, resist it:
don’t mix vinegar with the honey.
…..
Don’t talk about how sensitive our poet is
when a whiff of wind can break his glass;
how can he talk about life’s miseries when
he turns ashen at the sound of a bursting bubble.
…..
Be a stream in this world that
lives with the ups and downs of life,
or, be a stormy sea that
ignores such things in its way.
…..
If you pluck a flower,
don’t complain about the thorn;
the spring lets also a thorn
grown by a flower.
…..
Don’t dye your hair: how can you
steal back the youth this way?
…..
Love has no respect for
those who cannot dare;
eagle does not touch
the bird, already dead.
…..
Poetry is not sold in the market;
a flower doesn’t buy you bread.
…..
It would have been nice if we
could travel unburdened by the past.
If unquestioned obedience were good,
the Prophet too would have obeyed others.
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