At dawn the Solomon* -like messenger bearing good tidings
Arrived with an open brow like that of Felicity.
His face brightened the heart like a company of friends,
His lips shed pearls, like the band of the generous,
By his head he, like Genius, seized greatness,
By his feet he, like Power, gripped wide countries,
Friend and stranger gathered around him
As round a rich host on a feasting-day.
His loins were girt with alacrity and speed
As the path of the Zodiac girdles the revolving spheres
A lofty plume appeared in his cap
He seemed a gracious bird* with outstretched wings
An auspicious rescript bound upon his head
Showed* its preface atop where Reason's seal is,
A letter he had received in the glorious court
Was a summons from the prince of the Caliphate
Auspicious harbingers proclaimed, “Read
Thy letter of release, O sorrowing captive”
The distant view of the courier caused me an agitation
Worth hundreds of non-agitations
My heart fluttered at the motion of his bells*
As flutters the* Nazarene's soul at the swaying of the nāqūs

I kissed his crippled feet,* forgetting that
This action was an impediment to his advance
His sudden call produced such ecstacy* in me
As the Divine attraction excites in the pilgrim,
How shall I write of that time when my heart's boat
Was tossed on the billows of the tempest,
A quickening Spring visited my words-garden
A youthful morning came to my spirits' tulip,
Whiles I was disturbed, thinking by what argument
I could raise doubts about absolute verities,
Wherefore diversity of practice in Islām?
Wherefore ambiguities in the words of the Qorān?
Why did false witness shoot out the tongue in the tribunal
Of pride and hypocrisy, and claim belief,
If such be the religion of Islam in this world
Scoffers can have a thousand smiles at the Musulman faith!
Whiles I went on, like Reason, thinking how I could compre­hend
The secrets of the wisdom of Greciạn sages
What ideas did the “First Master” (Aristotle) entertain?
What explanation was given by the “Second Interpreter”?*
What is Divine wisdom that the precepts thereof
I may engrave on the tablets of my soul?
But how shall truth's light shine upon
My heart which is not turned towards the holy lamps?
What path is there to the genius which understands
The nature of heat, cold, moisture, and the dryness of the desert and the mine?*
How does the sage by the touch of his forefinger

Understand the condition of the heart by the arterial current?
What is the path to mathematics by whose discipline
I may learn the mysteries of the revolving spheres?
Why is the fifth sphere the throne of Mars?
Why the seventh the portico of Saturn?
Whiles I was taken with the weighing of the jewels of poesy
The scales of the balance were full of words and meanings
My brain was perfumed with the ār of Firdūsī
My fancy's ear filled with the fame of Khāqāni
Whiles I meditated on prose and belles-lettres
And turned with a smitten brain to the Gulistān's nosegay,
Whiles I was occupied with riddles,* since perhaps
They would act as a file upon iron,
My tongue full of wisdom's words, and yet
My head not a moment clear of secret madness
Reason showed to my exterior* Tayfurī's* asceticism
The Ṣan'aāni's* love impressed my brain

There was intellect prologuising demonstrative reasoning
There were rays of visionary love which burnt books
There were flowery gales of knowledge turning over their pages
Of my soul what shall I say? One soul had a hundred appetites!
Of my heart what shall I boast? One love and a hundred griefs!
The eyelashes which encircled the eyes of youthful singers
Lacerated my liver as if they were tiger's* hairs,
My father—may his kindly shadow long endure!
Did not suffer me to abandon study
As perchance I might by his assiduous teaching
Become, like himself, one of the Divinely learned.
His advice ever was, “O famished one of life's morning
Receive wisdom's morsels (luqma) from Luqman's* tray
Lust not after beauteous fairy-forms
Lest Satan's wings sprout from thine arms
Let not sweat* be aye dropping from thy brow
For such floods, like heaping cotton in the fire, end in destruction

What is thy heart's condition, and what is Love?
Be not o'ercome (by love), for glass* will not make an anvil
Why has thy heart opened to Indian love?*
Seek* not the key of the K'aaba from the monkish cross”
In fine I moved between reason and madness
For wisdom was mingled with unwisdom.
The sound of the footsteps of the Sultan's courier
Roused me to wakefulness from the sleep of neglect
I know not what was the magic whereby
My mind was freed from foolish thoughts
God be praised! that attraction flung my soul
From the stony field of sorrow into a condition of repose
All those weeds and thorns of lusts were consumed
By the sparse rays of the Divine lightnings
I become an alert rider on a swift steed
Which careered in its wisdom through the spheres,
Like Noah I traversed the tempestuous ocean
Like Khiẓr I went alone in the desert
In ecstasy of joy I so hastened along
That I was like a spirit freed from the body's chain
I moved like a petitioner on the highway of respect
With my heart's fist I snapped the bonds of sloth
Meanwhile all my imagination and inquiry were engaged
In considering how the affair would be arranged
On the way there came to the point of the pen of my thought
The broidery of the Shahinshāh's praises wīth a Saḥbānlike* eloquence

Suddenly the blackness of his encampment* showed itself afar off
'Twas a blackness which made my eyes bright
It was announced to the royal tent “Lo”
The garden-bird has come to the gate of Paradise”
An order issued to treat it kindly and to bring it in.
Raising me from darkness' abyss to the sky of bliss
Fortune's lord* drew the rein of my star
Towards the court of the world-ruler.
First I kissed the dust of the thereshold
I reached the fountain-head which cures the thirsty
I placed my forehead on the ground in thankful adoration
I made ablution not of my body but of my soul
What shall I say of the door of his fortune's abode
'Twas a wondrous exemplar of the Divine Court
No earthly court, for in it there were
A hundred times more things of pleasure and grace.
They who dwell in the precincts of that sublime place
Are approximated to the attendants of heaven
Men of light and leading stood around.
The exalted Cyrus sate on a Grecian* throne
Akbar Shāh* the bestower of glory on India's night
Lamp of the court of dominion of Taimur's dynasty
God be praised! from the noble nature of that country
Both trees and soil yield aloes and balsam* 'Twas signified that I should sit and enjoy myself.
In the antechamber of the assembly of friends
I sate down before the pedestal of the Shāh's throne
My speaking tongue ran over with encomia
Eloquent men of 'Irāq and Khurāsān
Poured out pearls of praise over my words
One was amazed and said, “Who is this magician
Whose tongue makes pearls and corals?”
One said with wonder, “This noble pearl
From what cloud of Naisan* was it produced?
What is this new singing-bird
That revives the notes of the nightingale?”
The tongue of the evil-thoughted was lengthened against me;
As my heart's palace had a lofty base
The moisture of my spirit did not evaporate in a hot reply
For there was on Faiẓi's lips abundance (faiẓānī) of cool water
My Shāhinshāh soothed me with varied kindnesses
So that I gradually became less and less bewildered
He opened his mouth to ask, saying, “O parrot,
Who was the doorkeeper of your garden of speech?
Who gave brightness to the dark city of your fancy?
Who laid the foundation of your lofty rhymes?”
After paying the respect of ground-kissing I said,
“O Ruler, whose orders are obeyed by the spheres,
The peace of thy reign is my gracious teacher
And the horn-book of its instruction is a large one
If you ask the secondary cause, my father was my teacher
For truly I have no greater or purer than he,
So long as my tongue has wagged with the joy of speech
My teeth have been sharpened by my father's kindness
From the beginning of the disease of ignorance till convales­cence
He administered remedies to my inward pains.”
Then he (Akbar) said, “Of those profound leaders
Who placed the things of excellence in the scales