دجود است اینکہ بینی یا نمود است

دجود است اینکہ بینی یا نمود استحکیم ما چہ مشکلہا گشود استکتابی بر فن غواص بنوشتولیکن در دل دریا نبود است

This being* would last or just a passing show, the wise could not solve this knotty tie so.
He wrote a book though ‘on diving in sea’, to his heart’s sea ah! he could never see!
* It is difficult to convey the true sense of ‘beeni’. If it conveys an opposite sense of Namud’ then its meaning is truth. Iqbal has not used beena (Conscious, having insight, a seeing being) here, still Wajud-i-beeni means conscious being. We enjoy both the meanings. If it means truth, then translation of line 2 gives a correct sense. Line 1 means: What we see would last, or a passing show, this being is a truth or just a false show.)

بہ ضرب تیشہ بشکن بیستون راکہ فرصت اندک و گردون دو رنگ استحکیمان را درین اندیشہ بگذارشرر از تیشہ خیزد یا ز سنگ است

With battle axe smite the Bistoon Mountain, the time is short trust on sky too in vain.
Leave the wise men thus in their headaches own, did the spark raised from the axe or from stone?*
* Farhad had taken a pledge with the King of Persia to dig a canal from Baistoon Mountain against which the King pledged to marry his daughter (princess) with him. There was a long controversy amongst Persian historians, poets or phillosophers whether Farhad was killed by his own axe or from a stone rolling from the mountain top. The readers would find a hint of that controversy in the above mentioned quatrain (twin couplet).

منہ از کف چراغ رزو رابدست ور مقام ہای و ہو رامشو در چار سوی این جھان گمبخود باز و بشکن چار سو را

Keep the crave’s lamp burning ever in heart, get the place where the uproars start.
Do not get lost in the world’s four nooks, break the four nooks, and turn to self’s look.

دل دریا سکون بیگانہ از تستبہ جیبش گوھر یکدانہ از تستتو اے موج اضطراب خود نگہدارکہ دریا را متاع خانہ از تست

O heart’s sea! No peace yet known to thee, the gloss of gems here, due to my glee.
O wave! Thus guard thy own restive thrill, the noise of storms thus, due to thy will.
(The literal translation of line 4 is as follows: To sea, the whole asset is thy own home’s wealth, makes no sense if written in English. Here the meaning of ‘Mata-i-Khana’ is legacy.)

دو گیتی را بخود باید کشیدننباید از حضور خود رمیدنبہ نور دوش بین امروز خود راز دوش امروز را نتوان ربودن

To both the worlds win with efforts and zeal, from thee never run for thy own self’s weal.
From light of past see the light of to day, to day you cant cut off from the last day.*
* Rabudan: To pounce upon and run away. Here it means to separate, keep apart, detach.)

بہ ما اے لالہ خود را وانمودینقاب از چہرہ زیبا گشودیترا چون بر دمیدی لالہ گفتندبہ شاخ اندر چسان بودی چہ بودی

You show us O Poppy! Thy self’s own trace, and turned the hid mask of thy charming face.
I call you poppy when you show thy face, in branch what you looked? Where was thy trace?*
* It is up to the readers to infer their own conclusions of the philosophical points referred to here being not within the field of the translator. Here Iqbal has left a feeler to the believers of pantheism, theism and panentheism.)