Salman* the mellifluous,
In words of power and wit,
Said the world is too narrow
For men of skill and daring.

But one should have a lion’s heart,
An eagle’s piercing eye,
Then one can live without the light
Of a lexicon and learning.

Ape not the ways of the nightingale,
Nor those of the peacock,
For the one is but a voice,
And the other is but a colour.

* (Iqbal’s Note): Salman—Masood Saad Salman was a Persian poet of the Ghaznavi period, and was probably born in Lahore.