shikvah1620

*Urdu: stanzas 16-19*

16)
This isn't our complaint, that their treasuries are well-equipped
[They] who don't even have the acuity/intelligence to speak [properly] in a gathering,

==The Indo-Persian cultural admiration for elegant social gatherings and sophisticated speech (including poetry) is here on display.

The disaster/outrage is that the infidels receive Houris and fortresses,
And the poor Muslims receive only a promise of Houris!

==That is, the infidels receive beautiful women and power in this world, while the Muslims get only promises of beautiful women in Paradise. Compare 'Javab', stanza 12.
==Of course, the fact that ;huur-o-qu.suur is such a euphonious phrase has a lot to do with the structure of the verse.
==This verse strikes many modern readers as being vulgarly materialistic and beneath Iqbal's dignity; but there it is, and the exclamation point is his too.

Now there are not [from You] those graciousnesses, not those favors to us,
Why is it that there are not the former kind of courtesies?

17)
Why, among Muslims, is worldly wealth unobtainable?
Your power is such that it has no limit or accounting.

If You would want, then from the breast of the desert a bubble [of water] would arise,
The traveler in the desert would be flood-stricken by the wave of a mirage.

There is taunting by the Others, there is disgrace, there is poverty--
For dying for Your name, is the recompense baseness/wretchedness?

....

18)
The world has now become a lover/desirer of the Others!
For us, there remains a single imaginary world!

We took our leave, others took care of the world,
So don't say "the world has become empty of Oneness"!

==That is, God shouldn't later complain that nobody honors Him, since it was He who permitted the Muslims to be driven from power.

We live so that Your name would remain in the world
Is it at all possible that the Cupbearer wouldn't remain, [but] the glass would remain?

19)
Your gathering has gone, the lovers too have gone,
The sighs of the night have gone, the laments of the morning have gone!

==Urdu often provides an extra bhii , as compared to English usage.

We gave You our hearts and went on; we made our peace too and went on.
Having come, we hadn't even sat down-- and we were thrown out!

The lovers came, they went off having taken [with them] a promise of 'tomorrow'
Now take the lamp of [Your] beautiful face, and search for them!

*Urdu: stanzas 20-23*

20)
The pain of Laila is still the same, the side/aspect of Qais too is still the same,
In the desert and mountain of Najd, the wildness of the deer too is still the same.

==Qais was the real name of the famous mad lover Majnun, and Laila was his beloved.
==The desert of Najd was where Majnun wandered, befriended by the wild animals.

The heart of passion is still the same, the magic of beauty too is still the same,
The community of Ahmad the Messenger is still the same, You too are still the same.

=="Ahmad" is another form of the name "Muhammad."

Then, this coldness without cause-- what's the meaning?
On Your madmen, this eye of wrath-- what's the meaning?