When Núshírwán ascended to his throne
In pomp, with his good fortune for his mate,
The world was decked like Paradise with justice,

With goodliness, and wealth, had rest from strife,
Inequity, and bloodshed, everywhere,
And was renewed by Grace divine. “They have,”
Thou wouldst have said, “bound both the hands of
evil.”
None knew of pillage, raid, or putting forth
The hand to ill; all came at his behest
From darkness and perverseness to the way.
If any dropped a drachm upon the road
A thief would shun that wealth! As for brocade
And for dínárs, on land and sea, by daylight,
And in the hours for sleep, the ill-disposed
Would look not to that quarter out of fear,
And through the justice of the Sháh, the world-lord.
The world was pargetted like Paradise,
And dale and desert were fulfilled with wealth.
Dispatches went to all the provinces,
To every man of name and potentate,
While from the Turkman merchants and from Chín,
Sakláb and every province, came such store
Of musk-bags and of silk of Chín, of trinkets
Of Rúm and of the land of Hind, as made
Írán like jocund Paradise; its dust
Was ambergris, its bricks were gold. The world
Turned toward Írán and rested from distress
And bickering. “The breezes shed rose-water,”
Thou wouldst have said, and men had peace from pain
And leech. The moisture showered upon the rose
In season, and the farmer was not sad
Through lack of rain. The world grew full of herbage
And cattle, plains and valleys were all flowers,
Rooftrees, and dwellings, all the streams seemed seas,
And roses Pleiad-like within the gardens.
Men learned to speak new tongues within Írán,
Illumed their souls with knowledge, and returned
Thanksgiving to their guide, the Sháh, for all
The traffickers that came from every march
And land, from Turkistán, Chín, Hind, and Rúm,
While cattle multiplied amid the herbage.
All learnéd men and ready speakers found
A place at court. The great, the men of lore,
And archimages were esteemed, the wicked
Shook fearful of calamity. What time
The sun adorned the world a proclamation
Would go up from the court: “All ye that are
The servants of the monarch of the world!
Keep not ill hidden, any one of you!
Whoe'er hath toiled at any task shall have
A treasure in proportion to his travail.
Prefer your claims before our chamberlain
That he may seek your recompense from us.
If any creditor shall come and ask
For payment from the poor, my treasurer
Will pay the debt because the destitute
Must not be troubled. Whosoe'er shall look
Upon another's wife, and his accuser
Appeal to us, the offender shall see naught
But pit and gibbet, bondage in the pit,
And arrows on the gibbet. If men find
A horse at large, and any husbandman
Complain thereof at court, let it be slain
Upon that tilth, and he shall have the carcass
Who had the scath, the horseman shall be horseless,
And fare afoot before Ázargashasp
To tender his excuse, the muster-master
Shall strike his name off from the muster-roll,
They shall lay low his dwelling, and the offender,
Whate'er his rank may be, shall be degraded.
The Sháh can not be of one mind with such,
Will have the righteous only at his court,
And at our court God grant there never be
Those that approve not of our policy.”