“The sky and the stars envy thy worth; the countries and lands
render thanks for thy victory.
He warms the spear-head with the glow of hearts; the nock
[of his arrow] rains death on his foe.
[His] exploits of war yield a treasure of victory; [his] pro-
tection of friends devises empire.
The pleasure and substance of a man [is] to lavish treasure;
do thou reck nothing of the strong in war.”

The next eight verses illustrate eight different varieties of what is called raddu'l-'ajuz ‘ala’ṣ-ṣadr (literally “the throwing Raddu'l-'ajuz ‘ala’ṣ-ṣadr. back of the last word in the verse to the first place in the verse”), a figure less limited than its name would imply, since it consists, as Gladwin (p. 11) says, in using the same word in any two parts of the verse. This figure resembles those called by Puttenham (Arte of English Poesie, p. 210) Epanalepsis (“Echo sound,” or “slow return”), Epizeuxis (“Underlay,” or “Cuckoo-spell”), and Ploche (“the doubler.”)*

38. KÁR-i-'adl-i-tu mulk dáshtan-ast: 'Adl-rá khud juz ín na-
báshad
KÁR.
39. Bi-YASÁR-i-tu júd khurd YAMÍN: Shud YAMÍN-i-zamána bar tu
YASÁR.
40. Khaṣm TÍMÁR-i-dawlat-i-tu kashad: Khaṣm níkú-tar-ast dar
TÍMÁR.
41. Dar maqámí ki BÁR-i-zar bakhshí, Rízish-i-abr-rá nabáshad BÁR,
42. Mí-guzárí bi-RUMḤ WÁM-i-'adú: Kas na-dídast RUMḤ WÁM
guzár.
43. Charkh az ÁZÁR-i-tu NAYÁZÁRAD: Bandagán-rá kujá kuní
ÁZÁR?
44. N'ÁRAD az khidmat-i-tu birún sar, War chi bishgáfiyash bi-
níza chú
MÁR.
45. Dushmanán-rá bi-DÁWARÍ wa khiláf, Bá taqáẓá-yi gunbud-i-
DAWWÁR.
46. Qahr u kín-at bi-bád dáda chu khak, Luṭf u qahr-at bi-áb
kushta chu nár
.

“The task of thy justice is to hold the kingdom: Justice, indeed,
has no task but this.
Bounty swears by thy wealth; the right hand of Fate became
to thee a left hand. *
The foeman is filled with anxiety by reason of thy prosperity;
it is best that the foeman should be under care. *
On the occasion of thy distributing stores of gold, the pouring
of the cloud hath no place. *
Thou payest with thy spear the foeman's debt: no one has
[hitherto] regarded the spear as a payer of debts.
Fortune is not hurt by thy hurting: How should'st thou hurt
thy servants?
It will not withdraw its head from thy service, though thou
should'st break it like a snake with thy lance.
Thine enemies by antagonism and opposition, at the instiga-
tion of the circling vault [of Heaven],
Thy wrath and ire cast to the winds like dust, Thy clemency
and wrath extinguish like water extinguishes fire.”*

The last couplet, as well as the next, illustrates the figure called mutaḍádd, or “antithesis,” and generally consists in Mutaḍádd. bringing together in one verse things antithetical or opposite, such as the four elements (as in the last of the verses cited above, and in another on p. 37 supra), or light and darkness, or day and night, and the like.

The next two couplets exemplify what is called i'nát, which means that the poet “takes unnecessary trouble” either by I'nát. extending beyond what is required the rhyme of the rhyming words, or by undertaking to use a given word or words in each verse. The following English examples from the Ingoldsby Legends will serve as illustrations of the former variety:—

“A slight deviation's forgiven! but then this is
Too long, I fear, for a decent parenthesis…”

Another example:—

“And a tenderer leveret Robin had never ate;
So, in after times, oft he was wont to asseverate.”

Another:—

“And the boldest of mortals a danger like that must fear,
Rashly protruding beyond our own atmosphere.”

47. Ay nikú-khwáh-i-dawlat-i-tu 'azíz, Wa'y bad-andísh-i-ruzgár-
i-tu khwár
!
48. Har-ki zinhár-khwár-i-'ahd-i-tu shud, Bi-sipár-ash bi-'álam-i-
khún-khwár
.

“O thou the well-wisher of whose empire is ennobled, and O
thou whose fortune's envier is abased,
Whosoever is false to thy covenant, do thou consign him to the
blood-drinking world!”*

This figure is also called Luzúmu má la yalzam, or “the making obligatory on one's self that which is not obligatory.” In the second of its two senses (that illustrated in the Persian verses given above) it only becomes difficult when continued throughout a long qaṣída.

The next verse illustrates the figure called muzdawaj, or Muzdawaj. “the paired,” which consists in the introduction into the verse of rhyming words other than the necessary rhyme:—

49. Káh-i-RÍZA bi-NÍZA bi-r'bá'í: Chún kuní 'AZM-i-RAZM, ín't
sawár
!

“Thou snatchest fine chaff with thy spear; when thou seekest
battle, see what a horseman!”

The next figure, mutalawwin (“variegated,” or “chame­leon”) consists in so constructing a verse that it may be read Mutalawwin. in either of two metres. Thus the following verse may be scanned, like the rest of the poem, in the metre called Khafíf-i-makhbún-i-maqṣúr, or in that named sarí'-i-maṭwí.

50. Ay buda qidwa-i-waḍí' u sharíf: W'ay shuda qibla-i-sighár u
kibár
!

“O thou who art the model of low and high: and O thou who
art the shrine of small and great!”

The next figure is what is called irsálu'l-mathal, a term rendered by the late Mr. E. J. W. Gibb “proverbial com- Irsálu'l-mathal. mission”; of which there is a subordinate variety, irsálu'l-mathalayn, which consists in the intro­duction into the verse of two proverbial sayings, or of two similitudes. This is similar to the “Gnome, or director” of Puttenham (p. 243), and the “Parimia, or Proverb” (p. 199), concerning the latter of which he says:—

“We dissemble after a sort, when we speake by common proverbs, or, as we use to call them, old said sawes, as thus:—

As the olde cocke crowes so doeth the chick:
A bad cooke that cannot his own fingers lick
.’

Meaning by the first, that the young learne by the olde to be good or evill in their behaviours: by the second, that he is not to be counted a wise man, who, being in authority, and having the administration of many good and great things, will not serve his owne turne and his friends whilest he may, and many such pro-verbiall speeches: as totnesse is turned French, for a strange altera­tion: Skarborow warning, for a sudaine commandement, allowing no respect or delay to bethinke a man of his busines. Note never-thelesse a diversitie, for the two last examples be proverbs, the two first proverbiall speeches.”

This love of introducing proverbs into their verses is very characteristic of several Persian poets, notably Ṣá'ib of Iṣfahán (d. A.D. 1677-78), who served as a model to a host of Turkish verse-writers; and, in much earlier times, Abu'l-Faḍl as-Sukkarí, of Merv, who, as ath-Tha'álibi informs us in his Yatímatu'd-Dahr (Damascus edition, vol. iv, pp. 23 and 25), written in A.D. 994, “was very fond of translating Persian proverbs into Arabic.”