Western Images is a picture galley on the other side
of the Remaining Wine. It displays images of the West as they flashed
upon Iqbal’s inward eye. The first is ‘The Message’
and consists of nine stanzas of five couplets each.
1
Iqbal asks the morning breeze to take his message
to the intellectuals of the West.
2
Philosophy wanders through the desert and mountains
without catching a single prey.
3
Reason turns dust into gold but also attempts to
throw some of the dust into the eyes of Jesus.
4
The vulgar intellect becomes captive to its own
thoughts while the penetrating intellect sees through nine skies.
5
Humanity leaps forward from the seclusion of Love
and turns dark clay into mirror.
6
Love has now turned to the ways of lust, plunging
its sword into the breasts of friends and giving the name of empire
to plain robbery.
7
Monarchy is coming to an end and the age of conquerors
is over. Joseph of the West comes out of the prison and sits on
the throne after getting vindicated of false accusations. Old
secrets are no longer restricted to the elite. Life is creating
a new world and those who care to see can see this.
8
Iqbal sees that which is yet to come: a revolution
too big for the universe’s mind.
9
Life is a running stream and is about to flow even
faster. What has been but should not have been, shall not be.
What should have been but has not, shall be.
Iqbal puts out the candle by way of announcing the
advent of dawn after a dark night.
Joseph of the West has already come out but the problems
of the world remain unsolved.