خفتگان خاک سے استفسار
واں بھی جل مرتا ہے سوز شمع پر پروانہ کیا؟اس چمن میں بھی گل و بلبل کا ہے افسانہ کیا؟
English translation
Does the moth burn itself in candle's love in that land also? Does the tale of flower and nightingale exist in that garden also?
Translated by Dr M.A.K. Khalil
About this couplet
This is couplet 11 of 26 in “خفتگان خاک سے استفسار” (Inquiry from the Sleepers of the Grave) in the section Part 1 -- Before 1905, from Allama Muhammad Iqbal's Urdu book Bang-e-Dara (بانگِ درا), published in 1924.
Read it in the poem۱۱ / ۲۶