Shikwa by Allama Iqbal, Part 1,2,3
Khalid Shahzad
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(an asterisk (*) denotes "noon-ghunna")
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Kiyu* ziya' kar banu* sood framosh rahu* ?
(Why must I forever suffer loss, oblivious to gain ?)
Fikr-e-farda na karu* mehv-e-gham-e-dosh rahu* ?
(Why think not upon the morrow, drowned in grief for yesterday ?)
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Naale bulbul ke sunu* aur hama tan gosh rahu*
(Why must I attentive heed the nightingale's lament of pain ?)
Ham navaa! mai* bhi koi gul hoo* ke khamosh rahu* ?
(Fellow-bard! am I rose, condemned to silence all the way?)
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Jur'at aamoze miri taab-e-sukhan hai mujh ko
No; the burning power of song bids me be bold and not to faint;
Shikwa Allah(s.w.t.) se "khakam badahan" hai muhj ko
Dust be in my mouth, but God - He is the theme of my complaint.
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Hai bajaa shaiva-e-taslim mai* mush-hoor hai* hum
(True, we forever, famous for our habit to submit;)
Kissa-e-dard sunatey hai* ke mujboor hai* hum
(Yet we tell our tale of grief, as by our grief,
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Saaz-e-khamosh hai*, furyaad se mehmoor hai* hum
(We are muted lyre; yet a lament inhabits it - )
Naala aata hay agar lub pe, to mahzoor hai* hum
(If a sigh escapes our lips, no more can sorrow be contained.)
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Aey Khudaa! shikwa-e-arbab-e-vafa bhi sun lai
(God, give ear to the complaint of us,
Thy servants tried and true;)
Khogar-e-hamd se thora sa ghilla bhi sun lai
(Thou art used to songs of praise; now
hear a note of protest too.)
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Thi to mojood azal se hee teri zaat-e-kadeem
(In Thy everlasting Essence Thou wast from eternity;)
phool tha zaib-e-chaman, par na praishan thi shamim
(Bright the bloom bedecked the garden;
undiffused the scent abode.)
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Shart-e-insaaf hai aey saahb-e-altaf-e-'amim
(Lord of universal favor, let impartial justice be - )
Boo-e-gul phailty kis tara jo hoti na naseem ?
(Could the rose's perfume scatter with
no breeze to waft abroad ?)
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Hum ko hami'at-e-khaatir ye praishaani thi
(Peace of mind and quiet spirit won we of our labors glad.)
Varna ummat terey mehboob (a.s.) ki deevani thi ?
(Else the folk of Thy Beloved (p.b.u.h.) -
should they be accounted mad ?)
------------------------------------------------------- To be
continued....insha-Allah Aslaamu-alaikum Khalid Muhammed Shahzad
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BACKGROUND TO SHIKWA AND JAWAB-E-SHIKWA
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'Shikwa' and the 'Jawab-i-Shikwa', are among the most popular of
Iqbal's poems; they are deservedly celebrated, for they are among the
first to bring their author fame as an advocate of Islamic reform and
rebirth. The date of their compsition can be fixed very accurately by
a reference to contemporary events contained in the second of them;
when Iqbal wrote - 'Now the onslaught of the Bulgars sounds the
trumpet of alarm' he was commemorating the invasion of Turkey by
Bulgaria in the late autumn of 1912, an attack which threatened at one
time to penetrate as far as Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman
Empire and the last home of the Caliphate. These poems were therefore
composed four years after Iqbal's return from Europe. They mark the
beginning of that remarkable career as philosopher and poet which
brought Iqbal ever-increasing renown, until he was recognized as the
leading thinker of ISLAM in India and the greatest figure in Urdu
literature. It is all the more interesting to find him adumbrating in
these early pieces that theory of Selfhood (Khudi) and Selflessness
(Bekhudi) which later played such an important part in his religious
and political philosophy.
The central theme of both poems is the decay of Islam from its former
greatness, and the measures to be adopted if it was to re-establish
its authority and regain its vitality. The subject was, of course, no
new one; ever since the decline and final extinction of the Moghul
Empire, Muslims in India had been searching their minds and their
consciences for the explanation of so lamentable a disaster. Nor were
Indian Muslims alone in deploring the seeming collapse of Islamic
civilization; their co-religionists further West, from Persia to
Morocco, had been occupied with the same self-examination. But in
these two poems Iqbal stated the problem in singularly arresting
directness; the literary form chosen for its exposition, a dialogue
between the poet, as a spokesman for Muslims the world over, and God -
this dramatic presentation of the common dilemma made an immediate and
compelling appeal to Iqbal's public, an appeal moreover which has lost
nothing of its force in the intervening years.
To make a worthy translation of these poems into English is certainly
no easy task. To begin wuth, the translator ( A.J. Arberry) has to
confess to a very inadequate knowledge of Urdu, the language used by
Iqbal on this occasion. Left to his own devices, he would been
obliged to abandon the attempt; but the publisher, Sh. M. Ashraf,
procured for him a literal rendering of the originals into English
prose, ably executed by Mazheruddin Siddiqi, to whom the grateful and
cordial thanks of the writer are hereby expressed. But that is by no
means the end of the matter; Iqbal naturally illustrated his discourse
with metaphors and references familiar enough to those accustomed to
read Urdu poetry, but in many instances utterly strange, indeed
outlandish, to an English audience. Rather than impose on the poet
transformations, of which he would certainly and justly have
disapproved, the translator has preferred to reproduce his model as
closely and as faithfully as he could, appending notes to his version
to light up the dark passages wherever they are found.
From: Complaint and Answer
Translated by: A.J. Arberry
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