چیستان شمشیر
آن سخت کوش چیست کہ گیرد ز سنگ آبمحتاج خضر مثل سکندر نمی شود
English translation
Name that very keen contender which draws luster just like water from a stone, but which, unlike Alexander, does not owe it to a Khizr as a boon.
Translated by M. Hadi Husain
About this couplet
This is couplet 1 of 3 in “چیستان شمشیر” (The Riddle Of The Sword) in the section Reflections, from Allama Muhammad Iqbal's Persian book Payam-e-Mashriq (پیامِ مشرق), published in 1923.
Read it in the poem۱ / ۳