ka kitne hain
uf talak karte nahin ke
ko ki hai hain
“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.”
का देखा कितने हैं
तलक करते नहीं -ए- के
को की है हैं
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 →