شمع اور شاعر
یوں تو روشن ہے مگر سوز دروں رکھتا نہیںشعلہ ہے مثل چراغ لالہء صحرا ترا
English translation
Though you are lightened but are devoid of the inner heat; like the lamp of the wilderness’ tulip is the flame of yours.
Translated by Dr M.A.K. Khalil
Word meanings
سوز دروں: اندر کی حرارت۔چراغ لالہء صحرا: صحرا کے لالہ کا چراغ۔
About this couplet
This is couplet 10 of 86 in “شمع اور شاعر” (The Candle And The Poet) in the section Poems of Period - 1908-30, from Allama Muhammad Iqbal's Urdu book Bang-e-Dara (بانگِ درا), published in 1924.
Read it in the poem۱۰ / ۸۶