خضرراہ
خاک مشرق پر چمک جائے مثال آفتابتا بدخشاں پھر وہی لعل گراں پیدا کرے
English translation
Should shine like the sun over the lands of the East; so that Badakhshan the same invaluable rubies may again create!
(Badakhshan: This is a region in the present day Afghanistan which is famous for rubies and other precious stones.)
Translated by Dr M.A.K. Khalil
Word meanings
لعل گراں: قیمتی پتھر۔
About this couplet
This is couplet 35 of 85 in “خضرراہ” (The Traveler’s Guide) 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 poem۳۵ / ۸۵