Meaning
Scent, smell, fragrance.
Literally: scent, fragrance, smell
How Iqbal uses it
The boo is scent or fragrance — the invisible breath of the flower that the breeze carries abroad, classically the soul or essence that escapes the rose even as the bloom fades, a presence felt but never held. It is beauty in its most fugitive, spreading form. Iqbal uses fragrance for the diffusing of an essence and an identity into the world, the self made felt beyond its own bounds as scent travels far from the flower that bore it.
See it in the verse
Boo in Iqbal’s couplets
Qanaat na kar aalam-e-rang-o-bu par
Chaman aur bhi, aashiyan aur bhi hain
Chaman aur bhi, aashiyan aur bhi hain
Do not be content with this world of colour and scent — there are other gardens, and other nests, too.
Aspiration · Restlessness
Khudi ke zor se duniya pe chha ja
Maqam-e-rang-o-bu ka raaz pa ja
Maqam-e-rang-o-bu ka raaz pa ja
By the force of your selfhood, rise and overspread the world — and seize the secret of this realm of colour and scent.
Selfhood · Action · Aspiration