ستارہ
English title: THE STAR
Are you afraid of the moon or the dawn? | Are you conscious of the end of beauty?
Are you afraid of being robbed of light’s wealth? | Are you afraid of annihilation like the spark?
The sky has settled you far from the earth | It has wrapped you in gold’s mantle like the moon
It is outrageous that your feeble life is still in fear | Your whole night passes in trembling with fear
O shining traveler! This habitation is strange | The rise of one leads to the fall of the other
The birth of one sun is the death of a myriad stars | Annihilation’s sleep is the ecstasy of life’s wine
Flower bud’s departure is the secret of flower’s birth | Is annihilation life’s end, or is the equivalent of life!
Quiescence is difficult in the universe | Only change is permanent in the universe
Sources and translator credits
- Original text transcription: Bang-e-Dara — ستارہ — 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
- 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