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Tuesday, October 13, 2009

William Barnes (1801-1886)

William Barnes, British writer, poet, cleric and philologist is best remembered for his poems in Dorset dialect. In Pakistan, of course, his best-known work is 'A Mother's Dream' in Urdu adaptation by Iqbal.

The Mother’s Dream

I’d a dream to-night
As I fell asleep,
Oh! the touching sight
Makes me still to weep;
Of my little lad,
Gone to leave me sad,
Aye, the child I had,
But was not to keep.
As in heaven high,
I my child did seek,
There, in train, came by
Children fair and meek.
Each in lily white,
With a lamp alight;
Each was clear to sight,
But they did not speak.
Then, a little sad,
Came my child in turn,
But the lamp he had,
Oh! it did not burn;
He, to clear my doubt,
Said, half-burned about,
“Your tears put it out;
Mother, never mourn.”

Picture of Barnes' grave in Dorset, UK, is from Poets' Graves

2 comments:

  1. This is again another gem adapted by Iqbal.Now we are eagerly waiting for RUMI part 2 and the remaining parts of Rashid Minhas biography.

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  2. Akhtar, thanks. I'm having second thoughts about continuing the Rumi story at the moment, but the rest of the biography of Rashid Minhas will resume soon, I hope.

    There are two more poets to appear in this series about the sources of Iqbal's poems for children, and then I shall demonstrate how Iqbal transformed these simple poems into building-blocks of a very complex idea. I hope you will like that :)

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