Meaning
The fresh, dewy hyacinth, prized for its dark fragrant curls.
How Iqbal uses it
The sumbul, the hyacinth, with its dark clustering blossoms, is the garden's likeness of the beloved's curling tresses; its moist freshness and twisting form supply the ghazal, and Iqbal, with an image of fragrant, ensnaring beauty.
See it in the verse
Sumbul-e-Tar in Iqbal’s couplets
Tu bacha bacha ke na rakh ise tera aaina hai wo aaina
Ki shikasta ho to azeez-tar hai nigah-e-aaina-saaz mein
Ki shikasta ho to azeez-tar hai nigah-e-aaina-saaz mein
Do not hoard and shield your heart — it is the kind of mirror that, once broken, grows dearer in the eyes of the Mirror-maker.
Love · Courage · Adversity
Tu bacha bacha ke na rakh ise tera aaina hai wo aaina
ke shikasta ho to aziz-tar hai nigah-e-aaina-saaz mein
ke shikasta ho to aziz-tar hai nigah-e-aaina-saaz mein
Do not keep your mirror anxiously protected — yours is the kind of mirror that, even when shattered, is dearer in the eyes of its maker.
Courage · Selfhood · Adversity