Na Tu Zameen Ke Liye Hai Na Asman Ke Liye – Kalam-e-Iqbal

by Lady Ottoline Morrell, vintage snapshot print, January-March 1935

English translation

You are neither for the Earth nor for the Heavens
The world exists for you, but you are not for the world.

Reason and heart are sparks in the flame of Love;
One exists for burning mere straw, the other for destroying the roots of the wooded depths.

This garden is the place where sighs are nurtured;
It is neither meant for wandering among flowers nor building nests.

How long will your ship remain amid the Ravi, Nile, and Euphrates?
It is destined for the ocean of boundlessness.

Those who used to show the way even to the stars
now long for a true traveler to guide them.

High aspiration, eloquent speech, a soul ablaze with passion
—These are the provisions for the leader of the caravan._

A small remark—yet the Persian imagination inflated it
solely for the beauty of a tale.

Within my throat lies a restless song of Gabriel
—Kept safe for the One without a place (the boundless realm).