Meaning
The flower-gatherer who plucks the blooms of the garden.
Literally: rose-picker
How Iqbal uses it
The gulchin can figure the despoiler who strips the garden of its beauty, or simply the one who gathers the harvest of the rose-bed. In the garden allegory of community he is the agent who decides whether the chaman is plundered or cherished.
See it in the verse
Gulchin in Iqbal’s couplets
Khuda agar dil-e-fitrat-shanaas de tujh ko
Sukoot-e-laala-o-gul se kalaam paida kar
Sukoot-e-laala-o-gul se kalaam paida kar
If God gives you a heart that can read Nature, then draw speech out of the silence of the tulip and the rose.
Self-Knowledge · Aspiration · Awakening
Chin o Arab hamara Hindostan hamara
Muslim hain hum watan hai sara jahan hamara
Muslim hain hum watan hai sara jahan hamara
China and Arabia are ours, India is ours; we are Muslims, and the whole world is our homeland.
Unity · Freedom
Shakh-e-gul par chahak wa-lekin
Kar apni khudi mein aashiyana
Kar apni khudi mein aashiyana
Sing, by all means, on the rose-branch — but build your nest within your own selfhood.
Selfhood · Self-Knowledge
Safina-e-barg-e-gul bana lega qafila mor-e-na-tawan ka
Hazar maujon ki ho kashakash magar ye dariya se par hoga
Hazar maujon ki ho kashakash magar ye dariya se par hoga
The caravan of feeble ants will make a boat of a rose petal; though a thousand waves clash against it, this boat will cross the river.
Hope · Courage · Unity
Related words
PERSIAN
Gulaab
The rose, the central flower of the garden and the object of the nightingale's love.
PERSIAN
Bahaar
Spring, the season of bloom and renewal when the garden returns to life.
PERSIAN
Sahn-e-Chaman
The open courtyard or expanse of the garden, the level ground where the flowers grow.
ARABIC
Sayyaad
The hunter or fowler who lays snares to trap the birds of the garden.
PERSIAN
Gulistaan
A rose-garden, a flower-garden, a place full of blooming roses.