The Painful Wail

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



Consumed with grief I am, I get relief in no way
O circumambient waters of the Ganges drown me

Our land foments excessive mutual enmity
What unity! Our closeness harbors separation

Enmity instead of sincerity is outrageous
Enmity among the same barn's grains is outrageous

If the brotherly breeze has not entered in a garden
No pleasure can be derived from songs in that garden

Though I exceedingly love the real closeness
I am upset by the mixing of waves and the shore

The miraculous poet is like the grain from the barn
The grain has no existence if there is no barn

How can beauty unveil itself if no one is anxious for sight
Lighting of the candle is meaningless if there is no assembly

Why does the taste for speech not change to silence
Why does this brilliance not appear out from my mirror

Alas! My tongue poured its speech down
When war's fire had burnt the garden down

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 02, 2023

49 sec read
129

Quick analysis:

Scheme XA AB CC BB XX DD XA XX EE
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 870
Words 163
Stanzas 9
Stanza Lengths 2, 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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