shikvah
stanzas 21 through 25

    ....
    *Urdu: stanzas 20-23*

21)
Did we abandon you, or did we abandon the Prophet of Arabia?
Did we make idol-making our profession, did we abandon idol-breaking?

  ==The grammar is that of declarative statements, but the context requires the insertion of a colloquially-omitted kyaa to form a series of rhetorical questions.
Did we abandon passion, or the disorderedness/distress of passion?
Did we abandon the tradition of Salman and Uwais Qarani?
 

==Salman was a Persian convert who gave up fire-worshipping for Islam.
==Uwais-e Qarani was a Yamani who became an early and greatly devoted follower of the Prophet, even without having met him.

     
We keep the fire of "God is great!" suppressed in our chests,
We maintain a life like that of Bilal the Abyssinian.
  ==Bilal-e Habashi was an early follower of the Prophet who was the slave of an unbeliever and for a time had to practice his faith in very difficult conditions.
     
     
22)
Well, that former-type coquetry of passion hasn't remained-- granted,
Nor is there the movement ("road-measuringness") of submission and acceptance-- granted.
  ==The "well" is colloquial, and contributes to the effect of hii sahii : concessive, but only contingently so.
== The colloquial meaning of hii sahii is something like "so what," "even if it is," "so be it," "indeed." It's concessive, but only in preparation for some further point to be made.
Nor does the restless heart have the quality of a Ka'bah-pointer-- granted,
Nor is there adherence to the laws of faithfulness-- granted.
  ==That is, the restless heart doesn't always incline toward religion.
==Despite all this, Iqbal then goes on to tell God that His behavior is even worse.
     
There is familiarity/intimacy sometimes with us, sometimes with the Other:
It's not something to be said-- but still, You are a "go-rounder."
 

==A harjaa))ii is literally "one who goes everywhere," and thus colloquially a prostitute or loose woman (cf. :tavaa))if ).
==This famous line can be read with either tuu bhii to (that is, "we may not be ideally faithful, but neither are you"), or to bhii tuu (that is, "even though it's not fit to say, still you are one").
+=Not surprisingly, some people at the time objected strongly to this language as disrespectful to God; their criticism may have helped motivate Iqbal to compose Javab.

==For God's reply, see Javab,  stanza 8..

     
    ....
23)
On Faran You made the faith perfect,
In one gesture You took the hearts of thousands.
  ==Faran is a hill near Mecca where some of the Qur'an was revealed.
You made the fruit of passion fire-bringing,
With the radiance/heat of [Your] face/cheek, you kindled ("blew on") the gathering.
  ==The beloved's radiant face (or cheek) kindles and excites the gathering, as a vision of beauty. And people kindle fires by using their cheeks to produce puffs of air to blow on them. So we have an enjoyable doubleness in the meaning.
     
Why, today, are our breasts not inhabited by sparks?
We are the same burnt-out ones, don't You remember?
  ==To become "burnt out" in the cause of passion was praiseworthy in a lover.
     
     
    *Urdu: stanzas 24-27*
24)
In the valley of Najd, that noise of chains has not remained,
Qais has not remained mad for a vision of the camel-litter.
  ==Qais, called "Majnun" ("madman"), was for a time restrained in chains. See stanza 20.
==Or: "Qais who was mad for a vision of the camel-litter has not remained."
==The camel-litter is understood to be the one in which Laila would be riding.
Those enthusiasms have not remained, we have not remained, the heart has not remained,
The house is so ruined that You have not remained the glory of the gathering.
  ==This stanza is another example of imperfect meshing of Urdu and English tenses: notice that the Urdu is one step further in the past.
==The yih is colloquially used for "to such an extent, in such a way."
     
Oh bravo for the day when it [=Your glory] would come, and came with a hundred coquetries,
[When] it would come back, unveiledly, toward our gathering!
  ==The feminine singular verb would seem to have to apply to raunaq in the previous line.
==I take the aa))ii forms to be not perfects but colloquial substitutes for the subjunctive, replacing aa))e .
==It's also possible to read these two lines as Persian, in which case the verbs become subjunctive; I'm grateful to Zahra Sabri for pointing this out.
     
    ....
25)
The Others drink wine, seated in the garden, at the edge of the water-channel,
Seated with glass in hand, they listen to the melody of "kuu-kuu."
  ==The kuu kuu is the call of the koyal bird. The effect is romantic and idyllic. It's not to be confused with the English cuckoo.
Off to one side, far from the turmoil/commotion of the garden, they [="your madmen"] are seated--
Your madmen are seated too, waiting for "He is."
  ==God's loyal "madmen" are passively seated off in a corner, waiting for the announcement-- in Arabic of course-- of His presence.
     
Give again to Your moths a relish for self-kindling,
Give to the ancient lightning a command of liver-burning.
  ==In the ghazal world (and sometimes in reality) moths fly around an open flame, and then fly into it; they are thus an emblem of the passionate (mystic) lover.
==In ghazal physiology, the liver makes fresh blood, so it's at least as important an organ as the heart, and the effect isn't ludicrous the way it is in English.
     
     

*On to stanzas 26-31* -- *"Shikvah" index page*

 
 
 

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