نفسیات غلامی
سخت باریک ہیں امراض امم کے اسبابکھول کر کہیے تو کرتا ہے بیاں کوتاہی
English translation
The causes that make the nations sick are quite obscure, too vague and fine; although some man may try his best, yet cause in full he can't define.
Translated by Syed Akbar Ali Shah
Word meanings
بياں کوتاہي: بیان ساتھ نہیں دیتا۔
About this couplet
This is couplet 1 of 3 in “نفسیات غلامی” (Psychology Of Bondage) in the section Politics of the East and the West, from Allama Muhammad Iqbal's Urdu book Zarb-e-Kalim (ضربِ کلیم), published in 1936.
Read it in the poem۱ / ۳