1,951. i.e., I made it flourishing and kept it in good order.

1,952. Shah-i Sharq, “the Eastern King,” means the sun. The title is applied to the king on account of his splendour.

The second hemistich is literally, “I plunged the world into joy.”

1,953. “Provision for the road”; i.e., for the road to the future state.

1,954. Lit., “I gave to every person an order (barāt) for his subsistence.”

1,955. The B. ed. of 1328 has,

bīvagān sīr-u bīva-dārān ham, “whereof comes absurdity.”

The correct reading is, no doubt, bīva-zādān, “the children of widows.”

1,956. See Note 1,950.

1,957. An ass-load is described as a weight of a hundred Tabrīz maunds. The Tabrīz maund weighed about eleven pounds.

1,958. i.e., he found his fortune restored by the prospect of the king’s help.

1,959. “Some time ago,” ba-muddat pīsh. The B. ed. of 1328 has, zi-daulat-i khvīsh, “out of his wealth.”

1,960. “A piece of land”; lit., “a piece of bread,” but the former rendering is justified by subsequent distichs.

1,961. Chu itlāfiyān (lit., “as spendthrifts”), the reading of the B. ed. of 1328.

Another reading is chu iṭlāqiyān, which might be rendered, “as a free and easy or careless person.”

1,962. i.e., dissociate yourself from your arrow-heads; i.e., arms generally. At the same time the vazīr implies that the man is rusting in idleness.

1,963. The pen was the symbol of the vazīr’s control and power.

1,964. i.e., I will appeal to him.

1,965. i.e., as one having absolute power he spoke harshly to me who was powerless; or, more generally, he as vazīr made me feel his power.

1,966. The sense is apparently, “you would try by tears to affect me as if I were a dolt.”

The literal meaning has reference probably to the watering by agriculturists of clods or dry earth. I scarcely think the expression has any connexion with the idiom kulūkh dar āb afgandan, “to throw clods into the water,” which means “to be litigious, to wish to contend”, but I am not sure, as the origin of that idiom is not explained or clear.

1,967. See Note 1,965.

1,968. i.e., a robe of honour, khil‘at.

1,969. The attitudes assumed in prayer form an important part of Muḥammadan worship. The mental attitude, however, of the holy man is supposed to have a powerful effect upon the person to whom it is directed, as it is indicated in the second hemistich. (Cf. also the three distichs which follow the next three.)

1,970. See, for the same idiom, Note 1,272.

1,971. i.e., they cannot by binding the ascetic prevent his mental attitude from having effect upon the person to whom it is directed. He is not like robbers who would not have this power, and who when bound would be quite helpless to affect people.

1,972. i.e., the mental attitude of the ascetic—here one of distress and vexation—towards the vazīr would bring down curses upon the latter. (Cf. the last Note.)

1,973. See Note 1,926.

1,974. “(But) the ascetic would not take such ease”:

Zāhid ān farsh-i dāda-rā bi-navasht; lit., “The ascetic folded up the carpet which had been given,” i.e., he refused to stay and enjoy the comfort offered.

The B. ed. of 1328 has,

Zāhid ān farsh-i rāh-rā bi-navasht: “(But) the ascetic went upon his way”; lit., “The ascetic folded up that carpet, the road.”

1,975. Charkh-vār bi-gasht: “he became like the (whirling) wheel”; i.e., either, “he departed rapidly,” or, “he appeared exalted as the wheel, the sky.” Or, it may mean simply, “he departed rapidly like a whirling wheel.”

1,976. “Those travellers on the Path” are ascetic holy men or Ṣūfī saints whose spirits are exalted as the heavens, although their bodies are of earth.

After this distich the Author inveighs against worldly and corrupt people, of whom, as he implies, the world is mainly composed.

1,977. i.e., for one holy man you may find whose soul has been disciplined and matured you will see thousands of undisciplined and immature people.

1,978. i.e., however great the worldly undisciplined, immature people may become, their real nature is shown in their origin, which is as a sink. By a sink is meant apparently their bodily nature and carnal soul.

The sink means literally the small pool of water which is often formed near the source of a spring. In the B. ed. of 1328 the present distich occurs after the one beginning,

“(But) ere you find matured wine in the cup,” and after this latter, which reads differently in the B. ed., is found the following,

“The monarch in this brick-kiln of the earth became a damp brick from his sorrowing.”

If this be not spurious the subsequent distich should be rendered a little differently.

It will be necessary to give translations of the readings of the B. ed. from “Those travellers on the Path, etc.” They are as follows:—

“Those travellers on the Path who have been so, whose heads from earth have touched upon the heavens,

“Before they found matured wine in the cup, suffered much trouble from the unripe grape.

“The water of the stream, so vehement, is from the rill which rises from a sink,—

“The monarch from this brick-kiln of the earth became a damp brick from his sorrowing.

“(He thought), This set, although of human stock, are all (but) demons, though entitled men.”

The second of these distichs, referring to “the travellers on the Path”, necessitates the explanation that the Ṣūfī before reaching the knowledge of God suffered all the preliminary hard discipline of the Ṣūfī training. The meaning of the next distich would be that by the Ṣūfī discipline one may rise from the lowest condition of humanity to the highest spiritual state—that of the Universal Spirit—and to union with God.

In the subsequent distich reference is made to the monarch’s tears in his sorrowing state.

The world is called “a brick-kiln” because of the bricks, the human bodies, which are moulded in it.

1,979. i.e., the carnal soul obscures the higher or human soul and the higher spirit.

1,980. This distich and the following three refer to Bahrām.

1,981. i.e., when the sun rose and adorned and illumined the world.

1,982. i.e., as the rain refreshes the plants, so the king’s presence by the certainty it afforded of justice refreshed the people.

1,983. “The car of justice”; lit., “the camel of justice.”

1,984. This will recall the line,

Guṃbad-i gardanda zi-rūy-ī qiyās hast ba-nīkī-u badī ḥaq-shinās (ḥaq, metr. caus., for ḥaqq).

1,985. The B. ed. of 1328 has for mīkh-i kīna, “the nails of malice,” tukhm-i kīna, “the seed of malice.”

1,986. i.e., here, the ruler of the Hayāṭila. (See Notes 694, 991, 995, and 1,892.)

1,987. The B. ed. of 1328 has in the second hemistich,

k’ābiy az dast bar rukh andāzad: “in throwing a little water on (his) face.” The sense is, figuratively, “in doing any deed which would bring him honour.” (Cf. the expression āb-i rukh or āb-i rūy, “honour,” lit., “water or lustre of the face.”) I.O. MS. 1168 reads,

k´asp az dast bar rukh andāzad: “in bringing, on a favourable opportunity, the knight (lit., horse) against the castle”; i.e., presumably, “in urging his horse against the enemy’s forces.” But as this seems rather strained, I am inclined to doubt the correctness of this reading.

1,988. i.e., I am as an Ethiopian slave to the king.

Another reading is,

“I am either of China or of Ethiopia”; i.e., I am as you would make me, either ruler of China, or your slave as from Ethiopia.

But I think the reading of the Bombay edition, from which I have translated, is preferable.

1,989. i.e., the seven beauties of the Seven Domes.

1,990. The sense is probably, “He who embellishes his teaching by rhetorical beauties.” Or possibly “the rubies” may imply the name of the king to whom the poem is dedicated. (See Note 2,087.)

1,991. i.e., by the festivities, discourses, and stories told in the Domes.

1,992. i.e., his intellect acquainted him with the destruction effected by the moving dome, the sky, by which is meant fortune. (See the next distich but two.) The sky was supposed to move round the earth.

1,993. i.e., his brain was excited by the thought, but I have rendered “was heated”, as excitement does not apply to a dome.

1,994. This joy-effacing dome”; i.e., the sky as fortune.

1,995. Lit., “He left the Seven Domes on the heavens”; i.e., he took no further account of them, or rather, perhaps, he devoted them to religious purposes. (Cf. the next distich.)

A secondary meaning may be, “He left the Seven Domes towering to the heavens.”

A third, “He left the seven domes, the seven heavens, to the heavens,” (and betook himself to a loftier dome, that of religious worship and spirituality).

1,996. i.e., he devoted himself to religion, spirituality, and the worship and love of God.

1,997. i.e., When the king of cypress form had reached the age of sixty, and his black hair had turned white.

1,998. “The tomb of solitude”; i.e., presumably, a solitary tomb. One would surmise it meant isolation from all things of earth but for the next distich. The rhetorical merit of the distich is in the use of the word gūr, which means both “wild ass” and also “tomb”.

1,999. In this and the following distich the Author is still playing on the word gūr, which means “wild ass” and “tomb”, and also on the word āhū, which signifies “gazelle” and “vice”.

2,000. “This salt plain”; i.e., “the world,” called “salt” in respect of its barren worthlessness.