مہدی برحق
ہیں اہل سیاست کے وہی کہنہ خم و پیچشاعر اسی افلاس تخیل میں گرفتار
English translation
Experts in statecraft practise still the same antique guile and wily tricks; no flights of fancy the bard can claim to ideals low and mean he sticks.
Translated by Syed Akbar Ali Shah
Word meanings
خم و پيچ: داؤ ، ہیر پھیر۔افلاس تخيل: خیالات کی کم مائیگی۔
About this couplet
This is couplet 3 of 4 in “مہدی برحق” (The True Guide) in the section Islam and Muslim, from Allama Muhammad Iqbal's Urdu book Zarb-e-Kalim (ضربِ کلیم), published in 1936.
Read it in the poem۳ / ۴