فطرت نے نہ بخشا مجھے انديشہ چالاک
English title: On me no subtle brain though Nature spent
فطرت نے نہ بخشا مجھے انديشہ چالاکرکھتي ہے مگر طاقت پرواز مري خاک
On me no subtle brain though Nature spent, | My dust hides strength to dare the high ascent—
وہ خاک کہ ہے جس کا جنوں صيقل ادراکوہ خاک کہ جبريل کي ہے جس سے قبا چاک
That frantic dust whose eye outranges reason; dust by whose madness Gabriel’s rose is rent.
وہ خاک کہ پروائے نشيمن نہيں رکھتيچنتي نہيں پہنائے چمن سے خس و خاشاک
That will not creep about its garden gathering | Straw for a nest—un‐housed and yet content.
اس خاک کو اللہ نے بخشے ہيں وہ آنسوکرتي ہے چمک جن کي ستاروں کو عرق ناک
And Allah to this dust a gift of tears | Whose brightness shames the constellations, lent.
Sources and translator credits
- Original text transcription: Bal-e-Jibril — فطرت نے نہ بخشا مجھے انديشہ چالاک — 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