CXLIV. MAHARĪ OF KASHMĪR.*

He has composed a dīvān. He now holds a post in the imperial service in his own country. The quality of his poetry may be estimated from the following couplets, which are, however, a very small selection:—

“The good fortune of thy beauty has prospered thy affairs,
Else thou wouldst not have known how to manage affairs
successfully.”

There is also this opening couplet by a master of poetry (from which Maharī's couplet is evidently copied).

“Thou hast not understood what a firm covenant is,
Thou hast not understood what it is to be constant.”

(The following verses are by Maharī):—

“May I be a sacrifice for that mirror which the enslaver of
my heart
Keeps in her room, turned towards the rose-walks of the
garden.”

“Mahar, be in the world as those that have no share in it,
And as for the rose, be, like the nightingale, satisfied with
singing to it.
Satisfy thyself with the beauty of the world by looking on it,
345 Be, like the strangers, a guest who is content to gaze.”