gesuetab

gesu-e tābdār ko aur bhī tābdār kar
hosh-o-ḳhirad shikār kar, qalb-o-naz̤ar shikār kar !

1) make the curly locks even curlier
2) hunt down awareness and intellect, hunt down heart and sight!

= In the ghazal tradition, the beloved's curls are often imagined as snares that she sets to trap her prey. And of course, the beloved is often metaphorically God.
= The intimate address (the beloved as ' tū ') adds to the feeling of semi-erotic ardor.

ʿishq bhī ho ḥijāb meñ , ḥusn bhī ho ḥijāb meñ !
yā to ḳhvud āshkār ho yā mujhe āshkār kar !

1) passion too might be in the veil, beauty too might be in the veil!
2) either yourself become revealed, or reveal me!

= How to translate the subjunctives in the first line? 'Might be'? 'Let it be'? 'Would be'?
= The ' ho ' forms in the first line could also be taken as imperatives, parallel to those in the second line: 'Become passion within the veil, become beauty within the veil!'
= Here as elsewhere, the exclamation points are Iqbal's own; if I felt entitled, I'd delete them, since I think they weaken the autonomy and abstractness of the verse.

tū hai muḥīt̤-e bekirāñ , maiñ hūñ żarā-sī āb-jū
yā mujhe ham-kinār kar yā mujhe be-kinār kar !

1) you are a fathomless ocean, I am a tiny-ish water-channel
2) either make me a shore-sharer, or make me shoreless!

= A ravishing verse, isn't it? I always think of it as evoking the great choice between dualism (let me have a common 'shore' with you) and some kind of pantheistic monism (dissolve my identity entirely).

maiñ hūñ ṣadaf to tere hāth mere guhar kī ābrū
maiñ hūñ ḳhazaf to tū mujhe gauhar-e shāhvār kar !

1) if I am an oyster-shell, then in your hand is the brightness/honor of my pearl
2) if I am a pottery-shard, then make me a royal pearl!

= ṣadaf is not a (pearl-making) oyster, but the shell material, mother-of-pearl; this makes the very existence of the 'pearl' more hypothetical
= Check out all the wordplay potential of the various meanings of ābrū , Platts p. 2
= the two spellings of 'pearl' -- guhar vs. gauhar -- are a permissible variation for the sake of the meter
= ṣadaf and ḳhazaf as echo-words of partly similar and partly different meaning are obviously the heart of this verse; a ghazal's formal constraints often yield such rewards

naġhmah-e nau-bahār agar mere naṣīb meñ nah ho
is dam-e nīm-soz ko t̤āʾirak-e bahār kar !

1) if the melody of the new spring would not be in my destiny
2) make this half-burnt breath a small bird of spring!

bāġh-e bihisht se mujhe ḥukm-e safar diyā thā kyūñ ?
kār-e jahāñ darāz hai , ab mirā intiz̤ār kar !

1) from the garden of Paradise, why did you give me the order to travel?
2) the work of the world is long-- now wait for me!

roz-e ḥisāb jab mirā pesh ho daftar-e ʿamal
āp bhī sharmsār ho , mujh ko bhī sharmsār kar !

1) on the day of accounts, when my ledger of deeds would be presented
2) you yourself too be ashamed-- make me ashamed too!