1,401. This I take to be the nearest approach to the sense of the hemistich, Garchi z’-ān Turk dīd ‘aiyārī. “Turk,” in addition to its primary sense of “Turk”, means a “marauder” and also a “charmer”. The renderings of ‘aiyārī given by Vullers, Steingass, and Redhouse are quite inapplicable here, but the proper sense can be fairly well gathered from the quotations offered by Vullers as well as from passages in other writers.

1,402. The moon is here likened to a basin, and the Author implies that it is so inferior in beauty to the girl’s face that it is only worthy of bearing a jug to her as a slave to her mistress. The image is taken from the fact that the basin bears the jug.

1,403. Lit., “of just standard or measure.”

1,404. “To stimulate her heart and soul.” This, I think, is the right sense of az bahr-i ān dil-angīzī. Dil-angīzī is not in the dictionaries, but the compound, dil-angīzān, is given as a form of music, and evidently means music of a stimulating, rousing nature. (Cf. Note 1,506.) Ān in the hemistich means “a certain”, and ān dil-angīzī, consequently, “a certain (amount of) stimulation.”

1,405. Lit., “he sprinkled sugar over morello cherries,” kard bar nārvan shakar-rīzī.

“Sprinkling sugar” means speaking eloquently and sweetly, and “cherries” mean here lips or mouth, so that the sense is “he poured forth from his mouth eloquent and sweet words”.

By the word nārvan, “morello or sour cherries,” the Author may intend to convey also that the king in order to excite the girl’s interest sweetened his adjuration by an eloquently spoken narrative.

But all authorities do not give “morello cherry” as an equivalent of nārvan, though all give “pomegranate”. If the latter be preferred the additional sense suggested cannot be entertained, and “pomegranate” would mean the lips or mouth simply with regard to colour, and not to taste.

1,406. “Sextile aspect” denotes the aspect or position of two planets when distant from each other 60 degrees or two signs. This position is marked thus: *. A sextile aspect, it should be added, is an auspicious one.

1,407. The name given by the Commentators to the Queen of Sheba. An account of her visit to Solomon is given in the Qur’ān, xxvii., 22-45. (See also Notes 272 and 1,270.)

1,408. Lit., “loose at the joints,” gushāda az paivand.

1,409. “The Guarded or Preserved Tablet,” Lauḥ-i Maḥfūz. “In the Ḥadīs (the Traditions), and in theological works, it is used to denote the tablet on which the decrees of God were recorded with reference to mankind.” (Hughes’s Dictionary of Islām.) In Ṣūfī phraseology it is used to denote the Qur’ān, or the Universal Soul.

Al-Lauḥ. Huwa ’l-Kitābu ’l-Mubīn, wa-’n-Nafsu ’l-Kullīya (‘Abdu ’r-Razzāq’s Dictionary of the Technical Terms of the Ṣūfīs).

1,410. i.e., in order to see your beauty eyes were created.

1,411. “The fount of light”; i.e., the sun. The evil eye is supposed to have special influence over a thing of beauty.

1,412. The gardener or porter of paradise is called Riẓvān.

1,413. Muhr, “seal,” means here, presumably, “control.” Mihr, “affection,” is scarcely applicable.

1,414. Roses escape from the hands of people because of their thorns; the child, because he no longer requires their hands to do for him what his own can now do.

1,415. The Persian dīv means sometimes the same as the Arab evil genius, the evil jinn. It has often the sense of an assistant-demon to Satan, or of Satan himself, all these being of the evil jinn. The parī or “fairy”, on the other hand, is of the good genii, a good spirit.

1,416. The legendary Fish that was supposed to support the Ox which was imagined to bear the world, and hence the lowest place or depth. (See also Notes 739 and 1,060.)

1,417. Lit., “to see what gift he has brought me from the road.”

1,418. “God’s sanctum”; i.e., the territory, city, mosque, or precincts of the cubical house in the temple of Mecca.

1,419. The king of ‘Irāq resumes his address to the slave-girl.

1,420. The connexion between the preceding distich and this one is that though the king on his part consents to make no demonstration of love, it is surprising that the slave-girl, being so beautiful and formed for love, should on her part make no demonstration. “Abandoned thought of love”; lit., “accus­tomed yourself to not loving.”

1,421. “The limpid spring” is taken metaphorically as the king’s mind, in which the straightness of truth or the crookedness of falsehood would be discovered, as the form of the cypress would be reflected in the spring.

1,422. i.e., since my secret has been disclosed.

1,423. i.e., every person should step according to his stature, or, in other words, adapt himself to his circumstances.

1,424. “A handful of corn,” khvarish. Khvarish-i dast-ās is described as “a handful of corn thrown preliminarily by the miller into the mill-hopper”.

1,425. i.e., she tries to attract the attention of any man of open countenance who might be assumed to be liberal.

1,426. The literal sense of “rubies” is the pulp of the pome­granate; and of “pearls” the seeds. The “pomegranate replete with seeds” expresses metaphorically the breasts of a woman who has become fully developed; and the sense of the distich is that when so developed she has become experienced too in the knowledge and appreciation of the value of rubies and pearls, and, as the Author seems to imply, she covets them.

1,427. Sar-sabz, “verdant,” signifies also, as regards the immature girl, “happy and fortunate.” Rū-siyāh, “black of face,” means also, with respect to the adult woman, “sinful, disgraced, unhappy, and unfortunate.”

1,428. “Raw” means here metaphorically “inexperienced or unpractised as regards women”, and “ripe” the reverse of this. Both terms are used in connexion with “gourd”, which here signifies metaphorically membrum virile. The Author intimates that it is wise to abstain from women, and unwise to have intercourse with them.

1,429. i.e., even the black night is made beautiful when it has the moon in her lustrous purity.

1,430. i.e., she accomplished her business of excuse making, and did not trouble about the result.

1,431. Lit., “that kingly Moon.”

1,432. “One of mighty frame,” or, in the alternative, “a Rustam,” the Persian hero, who was entitled “Tahamtan”, “the strong-bodied one”. (For Rustam, see Notes 212, 1,035, and 2,078.)

1,433. “Had lost his might,” az tanī ūftāda, which means “had lost flesh and strength”. Neither this expression nor its equivalent, az bunya (binya) uftāda, occurs in any dictionary I know. I have seen the latter idiom, however, in newspapers. The expression might be taken also in a moral sense.

1,434. In this distich “a fay” means the slave-girl, and in the next “Sun” and “Moon” mean the same.

1,435. “The bow of an old woman”; i.e., the curved back of this particular old woman.

1,436. It is possible that this “spell-casting” means simply “deceit”. Afsūn (or fusūn), the word used here, signifies both.

“The world-illuming Sun” is the slave-girl.

1,437. i.e., the scheme seemed to him to shape well.

1,438. “One knowing ḥaram life.” This I take to be the sense here of parda-parvar, which is not found in the dictionaries. It might also, however, mean “a skilled musician”, and it is possibly in connexion with this sense that the Author uses the word “narm”, “soft, gentle, submissive, lowly, docile”, since this word signifies also “the bass or low” in music.

1,439. It is only by the consideration of a few words in this and the preceding two distichs that it is seen that the Author by his art, whilst apparently describing the girl as a juggler, a con­jurer, a musician, and a tumbler, is speaking of something quite different.

1,440. This may also be rendered “against the grain a miser gave away”.

1,441. The B. ed. of 1328 reads:—Gāh gāhī dar ān figandī dast; vaqt-i ḥājat ba-ān kashīdī dast, with no proper rhyme.

I would venture to suggest that the correct reading in the second hemistich may be gushādī shast; lit., “would open the thumbstall,” i.e., “would aim at.”

1,442. Lit., “hic suum cor, margaritam perforavit illic”; i.e., quod ad hanc puellam attineret mœrorem passus est, cum illa puella coiit.

1,443. “Non perforata margarita”; i.e., virgo intacta.

1,444. “Concupiit perforata esset margarita”; i.e., con­cupiit ut rex secum coiret.

1,445. “The dust,” gard. Gard-i māh means also “moon­beams”.

1,446. “The Moon’s face”; i.e., the slave-girl’s face.

1,447. Tanūr is a circular, open oven of earthenware.

“Storm” is used here, of course, in a metaphorical sense, and refers to the mental disturbance excited by the old woman’s machinations, whether enchantment was used by her or simply deceit. It has been intimated, however, that she was an enchantress or species of witch, and such, it is known, were supposed to be able to raise real storms by means of their cauldrons or ovens and magic arts. (Cf. also Note 1,454.)

1,448. Taken in connexion with the last distich but one, the meaning is possibly that though the day has no choice, but must begin with brightness and end with darkness, the king has free will and should not change from one course to the opposite without some sufficient reason.

1,449. i.e., “why do you make me suffer the sharpness of grief?” Vinegar is likened to eve because of its dark colour.

1,450. i.e., “Non repugnabo quin rex me vitiet.”