ــــــــ کي گود ميں بلي ديکھ کر
English title: ON SEEING A CAT IN THE LAP OF SOMEONE
Who has taught you this glancing with shyness? Who has taught you the riddle of Love’s initiation?
Love comes out of each grace of yours. Wit is dripping from the blue eyes of yours.
You see him sometimes, you shy away sometimes. Rise up sometimes, lie down and sleep sometimes.
Is your eye bewildered like the mirror? Are you recognized by the glow of knowledge?
You strike him with wrists, this is a strange playfulness! Is it aversion or anger? Or a way of Love it is?
You will be removed from the lap if you will be naughty. You will be beaten if the flower on the breast will fall.
What are you longing for? What are you seeking? | Ah! Are you also in Love with the same thing?
The feeling for Beauty is not special to Man | Like the heart it is present in everything
In the flask of time Love is like the pure wine | Love is the sun’s spirit, and the blood in moon’s veins
Its pain is concealed in every speck’s core | This is the light which is reflected in everything
It causes happiness somewhere, and sorrow somewhere | It is pearl somewhere, tear somewhere, dew somewhere
Sources and translator credits
- Original text transcription: Bang-e-Dara — ــــــــ کي گود ميں بلي ديکھ کر — 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
- Bang-e-Dara English translation at allama-iqbal.com — On Seeing A Cat In The Lap Of Someone — 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
- English translations in the Bang-e-Dara digital anthology excerpt — Recovered Urdu poetry anthology PDF excerpt; publication title and year are not established by the preserved source packet (bang-english.pdf, 105 PDF pages).Translation by M.A.K. Khalil; Passages are individually credited in the recovered PDF as “Translated by M.A.K. Khalil”; exact source and credit PDF page locators are stored with each imported passage.Source
- English translations in the Bang-e-Dara digital anthology excerpt — Recovered Urdu poetry anthology PDF excerpt; publication title and year are not established by the preserved source packet (bang-english.pdf, 105 PDF pages).Translation by H.T. Sorley; Passages are individually credited in the recovered PDF as “Translated by H.T. Sorley”; exact source and credit PDF page locators are stored with each imported passage.Source
