The Candle and The Moth

Allama Muhammad Iqbal 1877 (Sialkot, Punjab) – 1938 (Lahore, Punjab)



O Candle! Why does the moth love you?
Why is this restless soul devoted to you?

Your charm keeps it restless like mercury
Did you teach it the etiquette of Love?

It circumambulates the site of your manifestation
Is it inspired with the fire of your lightning?

Do the woes of death give it the peace of life?
Does your flame possess the quality of eternal life?

If you do not brighten this sorrowful world
This burning heart's tree of Longing may not green up

Falling before you is the prayer of this little heart
The taste for impassioned Love knows this little heart

It has some zeal of the Primeval Beauty's Lover
You are a small ñër, it is a small Kalam

The moth and the taste for the Sight of the Light!
This small insect and the Longing for the Light!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

44 sec read
65

Quick analysis:

Scheme AA XX XX BB XX CC XX DD
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 760
Words 145
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2

Allama Muhammad Iqbal

Muhammad Iqbal, known as Allama Iqbal, was a poet, philosopher, theorist, and barrister in British India. He is held as the national poet of Pakistan. He has been called the "Spiritual Father of Pakistan" for his contributions to the nation. Iqbal's poems, political contributions, and academic and scholarly research were distinguished. He inspired the Pakistan movement in Subcontinent and is considered a renowned figure of Urdu literature, although he wrote in both Urdu and Persian. Iqbal is admired as a prominent poet by Indians, Pakistanis, Iranians, Afghans, Bangladeshis and other international scholars of literature including the west. Though Iqbal is best known as a poet, he is also an acclaimed "Muslim philosophical thinker of modern times". His first poetry book, The Secrets of the Self, appeared in the Persian language in 1915, and other books of poetry include The Secrets of Selflessness, Message from the East and Persian Psalms. His best known Urdu works are The Call of the Marching Bell, Gabriel's Wing, The Rod of Moses and a part of Gift from Hijaz. Along with his Urdu and Persian poetry, his Urdu and English lectures and letters have been influential in cultural, social, religious and political discourses. In the 1922 New Year Honours, he was made a Knight Bachelor by King George V. While studying law and philosophy in England, Iqbal joined the London branch of the All-India Muslim League. During the League's December 1930 session, he delivered a speech, known as the Allahabad Address, in which he pushed for the creation of a Muslim state in north-west India. more…

All Allama Muhammad Iqbal poems | Allama Muhammad Iqbal Books

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