پھر چراغ لالہ سے روشن ہوئے کوہ و دمن
English title: Hill and vale once more under the poppy’s lamps are bright
Hill and vale once more under the poppy’s lamps are bright; in my heart the nightingale has set new songs alight.
Violet, violet, azure, azure, golden, golden, mantles— | Flowers, or fairies of the desert, rank on rank in sight?
On the rosy-spray dawn’s soft breeze has left a pearl of dew; now the sunbeam turns this gem a yet more glittering white.
Town or woodland, which is sweeter, if for her unveiling | Careless beauty love towns less than where green woods invite?
Delve into your soul and there seek our life’s buried tracks; will you not be mine? Then be not mine, be your own right!
World of soul—the world of fire and ecstasy and longing: | World of sense—the world of gain that fraud and cunning blight;
Treasure of the soul once won is never lost again: Treasure gold, a shadow – wealth soon comes and soon takes flight.
In the spirit’s world I have not seen a white man’s Raj, | In that world I have not seen Hindu and Muslim fight.
Shame and shame that hermit’s saying pouted on me – you forfeit body and soul alike if once you cringe to another’s might!
Sources and translator credits
- Original text transcription: Bal-e-Jibril — پھر چراغ لالہ سے روشن ہوئے کوہ و دمن — 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: Bal-e-Jibril — 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
- Bal-e-Jibril English translation at allama-iqbal.com — — Public digital poem page, retrieved 2026-10-06; pinned to allama-iqbal.com commit 82547635bb6b758c45082084b2f152fc453a8056.Translation by V.G. Kiernan; English Translation by: V.G. KiernanSource
- Poems from Iqbal — First edition, 1955Translation by V. G. Kiernan; Published English translations attributed to V. G. Kiernan; the 231 previously imported exact passages remain, with one additional independently reviewed final standalone line at PDF page 100. Each new locator names its exact passage scope.Source