so us ke shahr mein kuchh din thahar ke dekhte hain
“They say people gaze at her till their eyes are full — so let me too linger a few days in her city, and see.”
सो उस के शहर में कुछ दिन ठहर के देखते हैं
The verse in Devanagari — it carries the authenticity of the original, and every Hindi reader can read it.
The whole verse runs on hearsay — "they say" — and the poet, charmed by rumour alone, decides to test it by lingering in the beloved's city. There is something playful and tender in this, the way reputation becomes invitation, and seeing becomes its own reward. The couplet is the opening of a long, dreamlike ghazal that builds an entire imagined city around a beloved never quite met.
Curiosity is reason enough to go somewhere — let what you have only heard about draw you out to see it for yourself.
The heart of this site stays with Iqbal: explore his couplets → Or browse the whole Other Voices shelf →