ہمالہ
Hamala
English title: THE HIMALAYAS
O Himalaya! O rampart of the realm of India! Bowing down, the sky kisses your forehead.
Your condition does not show any signs of old age; you are young in the midst of day and night's alternation*.
The Kalim of Toor-e-Seina witnessed but one Effulgence for the discerning eye you are an embodiment of Effulgence.
To the outward eye you are a mere mountain range; in reality you are our sentinel, you are India's rampart.
You are the diwan whose opening verse is the sky. You lead Man to the solitudes of his heart's retreat.
Snow has endowed you with the turban of honour* which scoffs at the crown of the world-illuminating sun.
Antiquity is but a moment of your bygone age; dark clouds are encamped in your valleys.
Your peaks are matching with the Pleiades in elegance; though you are standing on earth your abode is sky's expanse.
The stream in your flank is a fast flowing mirror, for which the breeze is working like a kerchief.
The mountain top's lightning has given a whip in the hands of cloud for the ambling horse.
O Himalah! Are you like a theater stage which nature's hand has made for its elements?
Ah! How the cloud is swaying in excessive joy; the cloud like an unchained elephant is speeding.
Gentle movement of the morning zephyr is acting like a cradle; every flower bud is swinging with intoxication of existence.
The flower bud's silence with the petal's tongue is saying ‘I have never experienced the jerk of the florist's hand.
Silence itself is relating the tale of mine; the corner of nature's solitude is the abode of mine’.
The brook is melodiously descending from the high land putting the waves of Kawthar* and Tasnâm* to embarrassment.
As if showing the mirror to Nature's beauty; now evading now rowing against the rock in its way.
Play in passing this orchestra of beautiful music O wayfarer! The heart comprehends your music.
When the night's Lailah unfurls her long hair; the sound of water-falls allures the heart.
That silence of the night whose beauty surpasses speech. That state of silent meditation overshadowing the trees.
That dusk's beauty which shivers along the mountain range; very beautiful looks this rouge on your cheeks.
O Himalah! Do relate to us some stories of the time when your valleys became abode of Man's ancestors*.
Relate something of the life without sophistication which had not been stained by the rouge of sophistication.
O Imagination! Bring back that period O Vicissitudes of Time speed backwards*.
Sources and translator credits
- Original text transcription: Bang-e-Dara — ہمالہ — 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: Bang-e-Dara — 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
- Iqbal Academy Pakistan Bang-i-Dara Audio Table of Contents — Official audio contents list; cited only for the displayed Urdu and Romanized title pairsPrimary source used to document this poem’s language or title.Source
- Pinned digital source list 001 (Bang-e-Dara section headings) — Pinned repository commit 39d44fc0c2b8ca25769c4b36e6eac4d90cb42b35; digital transcription, not a selected print edition.Verified against this pinned digital transcription file; not checked against a print edition.Source
- Bang-e-Dara English translation at allama-iqbal.com — Himalaya — Public digital poem page, retrieved 2026-10-05; pinned to allama-iqbal.com commit 82547635bb6b758c45082084b2f152fc453a8056.Translation by Dr M.A.K. Khalil; English Translation by: Dr M.A.K. KhalilSource
