(1)

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“O Kamál, have thy tears from every eye-lash assumed the hue of
Salmán
Because he hath stolen from other people's poetry his brilliant
ideas?”

(2)

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“The breeze combed the tresses of my Friend; may God keep him in
health for ever!
So long as thou art upright in figure like an alif, we are like a lám
in the midst of woe! *
The moist eye is best [laid] on thy lips, for sweet-meats are best
[eaten] with what is moist.
The wounded heart is so filled with the pain of thy love that the
very idea of healing cannot enter it.
Vex not thy heart with grief for the Friend, O Kamál: his mouth is
the Water of Life wherein is healing.”

(3)

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“Hardly can the artist draw the picture of thy two eyebrows;
They cannot easily draw a double bow!”

(4)

<text in Arabic script omitted> <text in Arabic script omitted>

“What company, what paradise, what resting-place are here!
Lasting life, the lip of the cup-bearer, the brim of the goblet are here!
That Fortune which fled from all [others] did not pass by this door;
That joy which escaped all is here a servant!
When thou enterest our joyous abode with sorrow in thy heart
All say, ‘Indulge not in sorrow, for it is forbidden here!’
We are on the roof of heaven: if thou passest by us
Go gently, for here is the glass and the edge of the roof! *
In our audience-chamber there is neither seat of honour nor thres-
hold; *
Here King and dervish know not which is which!
Like wood of aloes we are all hot-footed and burning,
Save the ice-cold ascetic, who is here [accounted] raw.
How often, O Kamál, wilt thou ask, ‘What station is this which thou
possessest?
Whose station is this?’ For here is neither abode nor lodging!”

(5)

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“O Moon of mine, the Festival * is come: may it bring thee happiness!
What wilt thou give as a festal-gift to thy lovers?
Thy cheek is at once our festal-gift and our Festival:
Without thy cheek may our Festival be no Festival!
Thou hast said: ‘I will ask after thee next Festival’:
Alas! for this promise is of long standing!
Deliver my soul from grief since the Festival hath come,
For at the Festival they set free captives.
The Festival is come: cease to threaten Kamál;
At the festal season they make glad the hearts of all!”

(6)

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“Blessings on thy power of expression, O Kamál!
Thou hast, indeed, no choice as to approval.
The fruit which they bring from Khujand
Is not so sweet and so luscious!”

(7)

<text in Arabic script omitted> <text in Arabic script omitted>

“Thy pain is better than balm, O Friend!
Thy sorrow enlargeth the soul, O Friend!
He who begs of thee at thy door
Seeks naught but pain and calamity, O Friend!
Notwithstanding that through poverty I have not
Aught which is worthy of thine acceptance, O Friend.
I will lay before thee my two bright eyes,
I will say, ‘It is the gaze of sincerity, O Friend!’
Thou didst say, ‘I will slay thee,’ but this is not right:
Is it right that a friend should slay, O Friend?
Whatever the heart said in praise of thy stature
God brought true (or straight), O Friend!
Straight have I made this ode to thy stature:
Write, ‘It is by Kamál,’ O Friend!”

Kamál is, so far as I know, the only poet who endeavours as far as possible to make all his odes of a uniform length, namely seven verses, as he expressly declares in the two following fragments:

(8)

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“My odes are for the most part seven verses,
Not forgotten like the utterance of Salmán.
When Ḥáfiẓ recites them in 'Iráq
Fluently and aloud, [they are] like ‘the seven hard ones’; *
All seven [are] like heaven in their foundation,
And of such sort 'Imád [of Kirmán] has not a single verse.”

(9)

“The odes of Kamál are seven verses;
Of the grace thereof the ‘Five Treasures’ * are but a tenth part.
There exist also poems of seven verses by some of my friends,
Each one of which is limpid and fluent and charming,
But of every seven of them there should be erased
Four verses from the beginning and three from the end!”

(10)

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“When the Díwán of Kamál falls into thine hand
Copy of his poetry as much as thou wilt.
If thou wishest to understand aright
His rare ideas and expressions and words
Do not pass swiftly over each word like the pen,
But dive down into every letter like the ink.”

(11)

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“There are two Kamáls famous in the world,
One from Iṣfahán * and one from Khujand.
This one is incomparable in the ode,
And that one unrivalled in the elegy.
Between these two Kamáls, in a manner of speaking,
There is no more than a few hairs' breadths' difference!”

(12)

“Salmán requested from me a poem, saying, ‘In my album there is
no specimen of that verse.’
I gave him those answering words like unto which [in value] is no
pearl in [the Sea of] Aden.
I wrote them for thee, but his words are naught in my sight.”

(13)

“That Ṣúfí with his nose cut off hath nothing for us but helplessness
and humility;
One cannot accuse him of the fault of self-conceit (khud-bíní),
For the poor wretch hath not even a nose (khud bíní na-dárad)!”*

Two or three “fragments” are addressed to a certain Ḥáfiẓ, who, however, appears to be a minstrel or harper of that name, not the celebrated poet of Shíráz. The following, however, almost certainly alludes to the contemporary poet 'Aṣṣár of Tabríz:*

(14)

“At length poor 'Aṣṣár died and departed: he took upon his neck the blood of the courts * and departed.”

(15)

The following fragment, to which Rieu refers, * contains an allusion to an historical event, viz. the invasion of Túqtámish:

“Our Farhád said to Mír Walí, ‘Let us restore the Rashídiyya * quarter;
Let us give gold to the Tabrízís for bricks and stone for this building.’
The poor fellow was busy with his hill-piercing when, more numerous
than the ants of the mountain and the plain,

The army of King Túqtámish arrived, and the Unseen Voice thus
cried:
‘Shírín's ruby [lip] became the portion of Khusraw [Parwíz],
While Farhád vainly pierces the rock!’”*

The following fragment refers to the poet Humám of Tabríz (a contemporary of Sa'dí) and contains an “insertion” (Taḍmín) or citation from his poems:

(16)

“I said, ‘From the region [or Egypt] of ideas I will send thee
A few sweet trifles which will be like sugar in thy mouth’:
Again I feared this criticism, that thou mightest say like Humám
‘Do not again bring sugar from Egypt to Tabríz!’”

Other fragments contain allusions to Niẓámí and Sa'dí, while one is addressed to a poet named Ma'jarí of Samarqand, and the following to another (presumably a contemporary rival) called Ma'ádhí: