عالم برزخ
English title: THE STATE OF BARZAKH
Published English translations cover only part of this poem.
مردہ اپني قبر سے
What is it, this Resurrection Day? Of what present is it the future? | 0 my ancient sleeping‐chamber, What is Resurrection Day?
قبر
مردہ
A death that implies resurrection | Such a death does not entrap me!
It is true that I have been dead for a hundred years, | But I am not tired of this dark chamber in the earth.
The soul should once again ride the poor body | If this is resurrection, then I am not a taker!
صدائے غيب
Death is not for snakes and scorpions, Or for birds and beasts of prey, | Eternal death is the lot of slave nations alone.
Even Israfil’s trumpet cannot bring back to life those | Whose bodies, when they lived, had no souls.
To spring back to life after death ‐only the free can do that, | Even though all living beings are headed, Into the arms of the grave.
(قبر( اپنے مردہ سے
You vicious creature! In the world you were a slave! | I had failed to understand why my soil was as hot as fire!
ناک
Your corpse makes my darkness even darker. | It rips the earth’s veil of honour.
Beware, beware a hundred times of a slave’s corpse! | O Israfil! O Lord of the universe! O soul that is chaste and pure!
صدائے غيب
Resurrection upsets the order of the universe, | But it is this commotions that reveals the secrets of existence.
An earthquake makes mountains fly like clouds, | But it also starts new springs flowing in the valleys.
Total destruction must come before any re‐creation – | For in this way the problems of existence are resolved.
زمين
Oh, this eternal death! Oh, this struggle that marks life! | Will this conflict in the world ever end?
Reason cannot free itself from its idols; | The commoners and the elite‐all are slaves to Lat and Manat.
How abject Adam‐ the man with divine attributes ‐has now become! | That such a world should continue to exist, Is more than heart and eye can bear.
Sources and translator credits
- Original text transcription: Armaghan-e-Hijaz (Urdu) — عالم برزخ — Digital transcription file at commit 39d44fc0c2b8ca25769c4b36e6eac4d90cb42b35; the source dataset does not identify the underlying print edition.Verified against this pinned digital transcription file; not checked against a print edition.Source
- Iqbal Demystified source list: Armaghan-e-Hijaz (Urdu) — Pinned digital dataset commit 39d44fc0c2b8ca25769c4b36e6eac4d90cb42b35; the underlying print edition is not identified by the dataset.Community dataset list; not reconciled against a print edition.Source
- English translations in the Armaghan-e-Hijaz digital anthology excerpt — Recovered Urdu and Persian poetry anthology PDF excerpt; publication title and year are not established by the preserved source packet (armaghan-english.pdf, 39 PDF pages).Translation by Mustansir Mir; Passages are individually credited in the recovered PDF as “Translated by Mustansir Mir”; exact source and credit PDF page locators are stored with each imported passage.Source