Allama Iqbal's Poetry
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The Call of the Caravan Bell

Content

The Himalayas
The Colourful Rose
The Age of Infancy
Mirza Ghalib
The Cloud on the Mountain
A Spider and a Fly
A Mountain and a Squirrel
A Cow and a Goat
The Child’s Invocation
Sympathy
A Mother’s Dream
The Bird’s Complaint
The Interrogation of the Dead
Moth and Candle
Reason And Heart
The Painful Wail
The Sun (Translated from Gautier)
The Candle
A Longing
The Morning Sun
Pathos of Love
A Withered Rose
The Tombstone of Sayyid
The New Moon
Man and Nature
The Message of Dawn
Love and Death
Virtue and Vice
The Poet
The Heart
The Wave of River
Farewell O World's Congregation!
Young Baby
The Portrait of Anguish
Lament of Separation
The Moon
Bilal
The Story Of Adam
The Indian Anthem
Firefly
Morning Star
The National Anthem For the Indian Children
A New Altar
Dagh
Cloud
Firefly and Bird
The Child and the Candle
On the Bank of the Ravi
The Traveller’s Request
Do not look at the garden of existence like a stranger
If you had not come I would have had no occasion for...
O Lord! Strange is the piety of the preacher
I should procure such straws for my nest from somewhere
What can I say how I got separated from my garden
Unusual in state, distinct from the whole world they are
One should not see the Spectacle with the material eye
What should I say how much Longing for dejection I have
The one I was searching for on the earth and in heaven
Completion of your Love is what I desire
When that Beniaz opens His Graceful Hand
I bear hardships on myself, I am unconcerned with others
Majnun abandoned habitation, you should abandon wilderness...
Love
Beauty’s Essence
The Message
Swami Ram Tirath
Addressed To the Students of Aligarh College
The Morning Star
The Beauty and the Love
On Seeing a Cat in the Lap of Someone
The Bud
Moon and Stars
The Union
Sulaima
The Unfaithful Lover
The Unsuccessful Effort
The Song of Grief
The Short-Lived Joy
Man
The Manifestation of Beauty
One Evening
Solitude
The Message of Love
Separation
To Abd Al-Qadir
Sicily
The life of Man is no more than a breath!
O God! Teach a little Love to my happy Intellect.
The world will know when the flood of conversation will...
Thy splendor is manifest in thunder, in fire, in spark
O worldly congregation! Though your gatherings were...
We circumambulate the wine‑cup like the wine’s ref...
Time has come for openness, Beloved’s Sight will be common
The Islamic Cities
The Star
Two Planets
The Royal Cemetery
Morning’s Appearance
Tadmin on a Verse of Anisi Shamlu
The Philosophy of Grief
On a Flower-offering
The Anthem of the Islamic Community
Patriotism
A Pilgrim on His Way To Madinah
Qat`ah
The Complaint
The Moon
The Night And The Poet
The Assembly of Stars
Strolling in the Celestial World
Advice
Rama
The Motor Car
The Human Race
Address to the Muslim Youth
The Eid Crescent
The Candle and the Poet
Muslim
Before the Prophet’s Throne
The Hospital of Hijaz
The Answer to the Complaint
The Cup-Bearer
Education and Its Consequences
Closeness to Kings
The Poet
The Good News of the Dawn
Prayer
In Response To the Request For Writing a Poem on 'Eid
Fatima Bint ‘Abdullah
The Dew And The Stars
The Siege of Adrianople
Ghulam Qadir Ruhilah
A Dialogue
I and You
The Poem Based on a Verse of Abu Talib Kalim
Shibli and Hali
Evolution
Abu Bakr The Truthful
The Present Civilization
In Memory of My Late Mother
The Sun’s Ray
‘Urfi
In Response To a Letter
Nanak
Infidelity and Islam
Bilal
The Muslims and Modern Education
The Princess of Flowers
Based on a Verse of Sa’ib
A Conversation in Paradise
Religion
An Incident of the Battle of Yarmuk
Religion
Remain Attached To the Tree Keep Spring’s Expectation
The Night of the Celestial Ascension of the Prophet
The Flower
Shakespeare
I and You
Imprisonment
Begging For the Caliphate
Late Shah Din Humayun
Khizr the Guide
The Rise of Islam
O zephyr! Convey my message to the one wrapped in blanket
These songs of turtle doves and nightingales are merely...
O dejected nightingale your lament is immature still
Lift the veil from thy Face and be manifest in the assembly
The spring breeze is flowing again start singing, O Iqbal
For once, O awaited Reality, reveal Thyself in a form...
No wonder if the garden birds remained fond of poetry even...
Though you are bound by cause and effect
In the East principles are changed to religion
The girls are learning English
The Sheikh also is not a supporter of women’s seclusion
O wise man! This is a matter of a few days only
Western education is very encouraging
It does not matter if the preacher is poor
The patient of civilization will not be cured by the goli
Will there be an end to this, how long should we buy
We poor Easterners have been entangled in the West
“The search, the witness and the thing witnessed are the...
We have lost all material resources
As I tried to commit suicide the Miss exclaimed
So naive were they not to appreciate the Arabs’ worth
In India councils are a part of the government
Membership of the Imperial council is not at all difficult
What will be a better proof of affection and fidelity
The Sheikh was giving a sermon on the mode of operation
Let us see how long this business of the East lasts
The cow one day started saying to the camel
Last night the mosquito related to me
This new ‘verse’ was revealed to me from the jail
Life may be lost but truth should not be lost
Capital and labor are in confrontation with each other
That eternal rind has departed from the border of Sham
One day a dispute arose between the farmer and the owner
Throw them out in the alley
The owner of the factory is a useless man
I have heard this was the talk in the factory yesterday
Though the mosque was built overnight by the believers

The Portrait of Anguish

My story is not indebted to the patience of being heard
My silence is my talk, my speechlessness is my speech
Why does this custom of silencing exist in your assembly?
My tongue is tantalized to talk in this assembly
Some leaves were picked up by the tulip, some by the narcissus, some by the rose
My story is scattered around everywhere in the garden
The turtle-doves, parrots, and nightingales pilfered away
The garden’s denizens jointly robbed away my plaintive way
O Candle! Drip like tears from the eye of the moth
Head to foot pathos I am, full of longing is my story
O God! What is the pleasure of living so in this world?
Neither the eternal life, nor the sudden death is mine
This is not only my wailing, but is that of the entire garden
I am a rose, to me every rose’ autumn is my autumn
“In this grief-stricken land, in life-long spell of the caravan’s bell I am
From the palpitating heart’s bounties the silent clamor I have“
In the world’s garden unaware of pleasant company I am
Whom happiness still mourns, that hapless person I am
Speech itself sheds tears at my ill luck
Silent word, longing for an eager ear I am
I am a mere handful of scattered dust but I do not know
Whether Alexander or a mirror or just dust and scum I am
Despite all this my existence is the Divine Purpose
Embodiment of light is whose reality, that darkness I am
I am a treasure, concealed in the wilderness dust
No one knows where I am, or whose wealth I am?
My insight is not obligated to the stroll of existence
That small world I am whose sovereign myself I am
Neither wine, nor cup-bearer, nor ecstasy, nor goblet I am
But the truth of everything in the existence’ tavern I am
My heart’s mirror shows me both world’s secrets
I relate exactly what I witness before my eyes
I am bestowed with such speech among the elegant speakers
That the birds of the ‘Arsh’s roof are concordant with me
This also is an effect of my tumultuous love
That my heart’s mirrors are Destiny’s confidante
Your spectacle makes me shed tears, O India!
Your tales are admonitory among all the tales
Conferring the wailing on me is like conferring everything
Since eternity Destiny’s pen has put me where all your mourners are
O gardener do not leave even the rose-petals’ trace in this garden!
By your misfortune war preparations are afoot among the gardeners
The sky has kept thunderbolts concealed up its sleeve
Garden’s nightingales should not slumber in their nests
Listen to my call, O imprudent one! This is something which
The birds in gardens are reciting like the daily prayers
Think of the homeland, O ignorant one! Hard times are coming
Conspiracies for your destruction are afoot in the heavens
Pay attention to what is happening and what is going to happen
What good there is in repeating the tales of the old glories?
How long will you remain silent? Create taste for complaint!
You should be on the earth, so your cries be in the heavens!
You will be annihilated if you do not understand, O people of India!
Even your tales will disappear from the world’s chronicles
This is the law of Nature, this is the order of Nature
Those who tread dynamism’s path, are the darlings of Nature
I will surely exhibit all my hidden wounds today
I will surely change assembly to a garden with blood-mixed tears
I have to light every heart’s candle with hidden pathos
I will surely create bright illumination in your darkness
So that love-cognizant hearts be created like rose-buds
I will surely scatter around my handful of dust in the garden
If stringing these scattered pearls in a single rosary
Is difficult, I will surely make this difficult task easy
O Companion! Leave me alone in the soul-searching effort
As I will surely exhibit this mark of the ardent Love
I will show the world what my eyes have seen
I will surely make you also bewildered like a mirror
The discerning eye sees every thing covered in veils
It does see the exigencies of the nature of times
You have not acquainted your heart with pleasure of dignity
You have passed your entire life in humility like foot-prints
You always remained entangled inside the assembly, but
Have not acquainted yourself with the world outside the assembly
You have continued loving the charm of material beauties
But you have never seen your own elegance in this mirror
Give up prejudice O imprudent one! In the world’s glass house
They are your own pictures which you have taken as evil ones
Become embodiment of the wail of tyranny of life’s pathos!
You have concealed sound in your pocket like the rue seed
Clarity of heart has nothing to do with external decorations
O imprudent one! You have applied myrtle to mirror’s palm
Not only the earth even the sky is bewailing your imprudence
It is outrageous that you have twisted the Qur’an’s lines!
To what purpose is your claim to monotheism!
You have made the idol of self conceit your deity
What did you see even if you saw Yusuf in the well?
O imprudent one! You have made the Absolute confined
You are greedy of flowery style even at the pulpit
Your advice also is a form of story telling
Show that universally illuminating Beauty to your weeping eye
Which renders the moth highly agitated, which makes the dew weep like eye
Mere seeing is not its purpose! O greedy one
Some One has made the human eye with some purpose
Even if he viewed the whole world, what did he see?
Jam could not see his own reality in the wine cup
Sectarianism is the tree, prejudice is its fruit
This fruit caused expulsion of S Adam from Paradise
Not even a single rose-petal could rise by sun’s attraction
It is the longing for elegance which raises the dew
Those wounded by Love do not wander in search of cure
These wounded ones themselves create their own cure
The heart gets complete illumination by the spark of Love
The Tur’s flower bed is raised from the Love’s small seed
Every malady’s cure is to remain wounded with Longing’s sword
Wound’s remedy is to remain free from obligation to stitching
With the Bekhudi’s wine up to the celestial world is my flight
From disappearance of color I have learnt to remain fragrance
How can the weeping eye refrain from homeland’s lamentation?
The ‘ibadah for the poet’s eye is to remain constantly with ablution
To what purpose should we make our nest in the rose-branch
Ah! How can we live with constant disgrace in the garden
If you understand, independence is veiled in Love
Slavery is to remain imprisoned in the net of schism
Contentment is what keeps the cup submerged in water
You should also remain like the bubble in the stream
It is best for you not to remain indifferent to yours own
O apathetic person! If you want to remain alive in the world
Soul-invigorating wine is the Love of the human race
It has taught me to remain ecstatic without the wine cup and the pitcher
Sick nations have been cured only through Love
Nations have warded off their adversity through Love
The expanse of Love is at once foreign land and homeland
This wilderness is the cage, the nest, as well as the garden
Love is the only stage which is the stage as well as the wilderness
It is the bell, the caravan, the leader as well as the robber
Everybody calls it an illness, but it is such an illness
In which the cure for all ills and misfortunes is concealed
The heart’s pathos in a way is to become embodiment of Light
If this moth burns it is also the assembly’s candle
The Beauty is just one but appears in everything
It is Shirin, the sky, as well as the mountain digger
Distinction of sects and governments has destroyed nations
Is there any concern for the homeland in my compatriot’s hearts?
Prolonging the tale of my woes calls for silence, otherwise
The tongue in my mouth as well as the ability to speak is
“Take not this meaningful tale as related by me is
The story was endless, but related with silence is.”

Translated by: M.A.K. Khalil
The Portrait of Anguish

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