Now will I tell again old histories
About Shírín and Sháh Khusrau Parwíz.
The book containing them is antiquate,
But that same story bring I up to date
To serve as a memorial of the Great.
Six times ten thousand couplets there will be,
Well ordered, banishers of misery.
For thrice a thousand couplets one may look
In vain as yet in any Persian book,
And if one were to cancel each false strain
In sooth five hundred barely would remain.
That one—a bounteous king and of such worth
And lustre mid the monarchs of the earth—
Should disregard these histories is due
To slanderers and mine ill fortune too.
They envied this my work and with the king
They have prevailed to spoil my marketing;

But when the royal potentate shall read
My pleasant histories with all good heed
I shall be gladdened by his treasures here,
And may no ill from foe approach him near.
My book may then recall me to his mind,
The seed of mine endeavours fruitage find.
Be his the crown and throne while time shall run,
And may his destiny outshine the sun.
A rustic minstrel wise and old once said:—
“To know is that which giveth man most aid;
The tale of grief and joy he needs must tell,
Taste all the bitter and the salt as well,
For youths though knowing and of noble birth
Can only by experience compass worth.”*