Persian · noun · The Tavern & the Cup
Saaghar
साग़र
said SAA-ghar
also written: Sagar, saghar, sagar, saaghar-e-mai
Meaning
A large wine-cup or bowl; emblem of the heart brimming with love's intoxication.
Literally: wine-cup, goblet
How Iqbal uses it
The saaghar is a large wine-cup or goblet, a stock emblem of the wine-assembly where the seeker drinks divine love. Held high and passed round, it images the open generosity of grace and the conviviality of the lovers' gathering against the loneliness of cold orthodoxy. In Iqbal it is one more vessel for the wine of love that fires the self, often paired with the mina (flask) as saaghar-o-mina.
See it in the verse
Saaghar in Iqbal’s couplets
Main shakh-e-taak hun meri ghazal hai mera samar
Mire samar se mai-e-laala-faam paida kar
Mire samar se mai-e-laala-faam paida kar
I am the vine-branch; my ghazal is my fruit — from my fruit, press out the rose-red wine.
Aspiration · Action · Youth
Kya dabdaba-e-nadir kya shaukat-e-taimuri
Ho jaate hain sab daftar gharq-e-mai-e-naab aakhir
Ho jaate hain sab daftar gharq-e-mai-e-naab aakhir
What of Nadir's dread power, what of Timur's splendour? In the end every such record is drowned in the pure wine of time.
Humility · Self-Knowledge · Adversity
Main shakh-e-tak hun meri ghazal hai mera samar
Mere samar se mai-e-lala-fam paida kar
Mere samar se mai-e-lala-fam paida kar
I am a branch of the vine, my song is my fruit; from that fruit press out the tulip-red wine.
Action · Aspiration · Youth