aap ka me'yar dekha kitne me'yari hain aap
uf talak karte nahin zill-e-ilahi ke khilaaf
aap ko darbar ki aadat hai darbari hain aap
“Thinking the one before you is lightweight, you carry yourself as weighty — I have seen your "standard"; how very high-standard you are. You will not so much as sigh against His Majesty — you are used to the court; you are a courtier.”
आप का मे'यार देखा कितने मे'यारी हैं आप
उफ़ तलक करते नहीं ज़िल्ल-ए-इलाही के ख़िलाफ़
आप को दरबार की आदत है दरबारी हैं आप
The verse in Devanagari — it carries the authenticity of the original, and every Hindi reader can read it.
The couplet skewers a self-important man through mock-praise, the word me'yar (standard) turned over twice until "high standard" curdles into "low character." The second verse lands the real charge: this man who never breathes a word against power is no brave soul but a born courtier, comfortable in the very subservience he mistakes for dignity.
Notice when you flatter the powerful and condescend to the powerless in the same breath — that contradiction is the whole measure of you.
The heart of this site stays with Iqbal: explore his couplets → Or browse the whole Other Voices shelf →