Friday, October 05, 2012

Mohammed Iqbal

by Edd Doerr

Mohanned Iqbal (1877-1938), educated in Pakistan, Britain and Germany, was a  Pakistani/Indian philosopher, poet,  politician, and one of the founders of modern Pakistan, though in the l930s he envisioned it only as a self-governing part of the British Empire. One of his poems, "Dialogue between God and Man", struck me as being rather humanistic, so I have recast its form  just slightly as a combination Japanese tanka and haiku (57577, 575).

You created night,
But we created the lamp.
You created clay,
But we created wine cups.
You created the deserts,
Mountains and wastelands.
We made then into orchards,
Gardens, flower beds.

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