قطرۂ آب
گہی خفتہ در تاک و طاقت گدازگہی خفتہ در خاک بی سوز و ساز
English translation
At times you slumbered in the vine to wake up as a potent liquid – wine. At other times abed in dust, you made mere mud.
Translated by M. Hadi Husain
About this couplet
This is couplet 8 of 11 in “قطرۂ آب” (The Raindrop And The Sea) in the section Reflections, from Allama Muhammad Iqbal's Persian book Payam-e-Mashriq (پیامِ مشرق), published in 1923.
Read it in the poem۸ / ۱۱