Couplets › Awakening
From Bang-e-Dra, 1924 · originally composed in Urdu
Gulzar-e-hast-o-bud na begana-war dekh
Hai dekhne ki cheez ise bar bar dekh
Hai dekhne ki cheez ise bar bar dekh
“Do not look at the garden of existence like a stranger — it is a thing worth seeing; look at it again and again.”
Romanहिन्दी
गुलज़ार-ए-हस्त-ओ-बूद न बेगाना-वार देख
है देखने की चीज़ इसे बार बार देख
है देखने की चीज़ इसे बार बार देख
The couplet in Devanagari — it carries the authenticity of the original, and every Hindi reader can read it.
♪ Hear the coupletA recitation in a synthesized voice.
The Interpretation
Iqbal asks for an engaged, awake way of seeing. The world is not a backdrop to pass through indifferently; it is a garden, and indifference is the real poverty. To look bar bar — again and again — is to refuse the dullness that treats wonder as ordinary.
For You, Today
Familiarity quietly drains the colour from your days, until you move through your own life like a tourist who has stopped looking. Iqbal's instruction is simple: look again, and keep looking, until the world stops being wallpaper.
In the same spirit
Apne mann mein doob kar pa ja suragh-e-zindagi
Tu agar mera nahin banta na ban, apna to ban
Tu agar mera nahin banta na ban, apna to ban
Dive into your own self and find the trace of life. If you will not be mine, then do not — but at least become your own.
Selfhood · Self-Knowledge
Lab pe aati hai dua ban ke tamanna meri
Zindagi shama ki surat ho khudaya meri
Zindagi shama ki surat ho khudaya meri
My longing rises to my lips as a prayer: O God, may my life be like a candle's flame.
Hope · Aspiration
Na samjhoge to mit jaoge ai Hindostan walon
Tumhari dastan tak bhi na hogi dastanon mein
Tumhari dastan tak bhi na hogi dastanon mein
If you will not understand, you will be erased, O people of Hindustan — not even your story will remain among the stories.
Awakening · Courage