(Bal-e-Jibril-021) Ghulami Kya Hai? Zauq-e-Husn-o-Zaibai Se Mehroomi (غلامی کیا ہے؟ ذوق و حسن و زیبائی سے محرومی) Slavery—exile from the love of beauty

Ghulami Kya Hai? Zauq-e-Husn-o-Zaibai Se Mehroomi

Jise Zaiba Kahin Azad Bande, Hai Wohi Zaiba

Slavery—exile from the love of beauty:

Beauty—whatever free men reckon so;

Bharosa Kar Nahin Sakte Ghulamon Ki Baseerat Par

Ke Dunya Mein Faqat Mardan-e-Hur Ki Ankh Hai Beena

Trust no slave’s eyes, clear sight and liberty

Go hand in hand. His own resolves bestow

Wohi Hai Sahib-e-Amroz Jis Ne Apni Himat Se 

Zamane Ke Sumander Se Nikala Gohar-e-Farda

The empire of To‐day on him who fishes

To‐morrow’s pearl up from Time’s undertow.

Farangi Shisha Gar Kar Ke Fun Se Pathar Ho Gye Pani

Meri Ikseer Ne Shishe Ko Bakhshi Sakhti-e-Khara

The Frankish glassblowers’ arts can make stone run:

My alchemy makes glass flint‐hard.

Rahe Hain, Aur Hain Firon Meri Ghaat Mein Ab Tak

Magar Kya Gham Ke Meri Asteen Mein Hai Yad-e-Baiza

Pharaoh plotted and plots against me; but what harm?

Heaven lifts my hand, like Moses’, white as snow;

Who Chingari Khas-o-Khashaak Se Kis Tarah Dab Jaye

Jise Haq Ne Kiya Ho Neestan Ke Wastay Paida

Earth’s rubbish‐heaps can never quell this spark

God struck to light whole deserts, His flambeau!

Mohabbat Khaweshtan Beeni, Mohabbat Khwaestan Dari

Mohabbat Astan-e-Qaisar-o-Kasra Se Beparwa

Love, self‐beholding, self‐sustaining, stands

Un‐awed at the gates of Caesar or Khosro;

Ajab kya Gar Meh-o-Parveen Mere Nakhcheer Ho Jaen

‘Ke Bar Fatraak-e-Sahib Doulatay Bistam Sar-e-Khud Ra’

If moon or Pleiades fall my prey, what wonder—

Myself bound fast to the Prophet’s saddle‐bow!

Woh Dana’ay Subul, Khatam-Ur-Rusul, Moula’ay Kul (S.A.W.) Jis Ne

Ghubar-e-Rah Ko Bakhsha Farogh-e-Wadi-e-Sina

He—Guide, Last Envoy, Lord of All—

Lent brightness of Sinai to our dust; 

Nigah-e-Ishq-o-Masti Mein Wohi Awal, Wohi Akhir

Wohi Quran, Wohi Furqan, Wohi Yasin, Wohi Taha

Love’s eyes, not slow to kindle, hail him Alpha and Omega,

Chapter, and Word, and Book. I would not go

Sanayi Ke Adab Se Mein Ne Gawwasi Na Ki Warna

Abhi Iss Behar Mein Baqi Hain Lakhon Lulu’ay Lala

Pearl‐diving there, for reverence of Sina‘i;

But in these tides a million pearls still grow.