dil tha ki phir bahal gaya jaan thi ki phir sambhal gai
“Ask not now of the evening of separation — it came, and passing, faded; the heart was somehow consoled again, the soul somehow steadied again.”
दिल था कि फिर बहल गया जाँ थी कि फिर सँभल गई
The verse in Devanagari — it carries the authenticity of the original, and every Hindi reader can read it.
The couplet describes the evening of separation as something that arrived, then passed and faded almost on its own. The repeated "somehow" in the close is the craft — the heart was consoled, the soul steadied, but by no clear effort of will. It captures the quiet surprise of surviving a grief you did not think you would outlast.
You do not always have to force yourself through a hard night — sometimes you simply find, by morning, that you came through it.
The heart of this site stays with Iqbal: explore his couplets → Or browse the whole Other Voices shelf →