The next day when the sun displayed its crown,
And rays proceeded from the vaulted sky,
The monarch of the world sat on his throne,
And called the envoy in before his lords.
That old man sage, experienced, cloquent,
Of understanding and retentive mind,
Approaching with dejected head and arms
Enfolded, kneeled before the monarch's throne.
Bahrám both greeted and made much of him,
Set him upon the turquoise throne and said:—
“Here thou hast sojourned long; art thou not weary
Of looking on this land? War with the Khán,
Which closely partnered me, withheld me from thee;
Now all our case is altered, and thy sojourn
Exceedeth bounds. To that which thou shalt say
We will reply, deriving from thy words
Good rede.”
The ancient envoy praised him, saying:—
“May time and earth ne'er lose thee. Every king
Possessed of wisdom joyeth in the words
Of sages; sages are more nigh to God;
Those that think evil have the darker day.
Midst this world's chieftains thou art chief, who art
At once Sháh, chief, and best. Thy tongue's a balance,
Thy words are jewels, and who e'er will see
Gems weighed 'gainst gold? Thou art possessed of
knowledge,
Of counsel, sense, and Grace, and all the methods
Of conquering kings; thou art possessed of wisdom
And holy rede, and master of the wise.
Though Cæsar's envoy I am thy slave's slave.
I carry Cæsar's greeting to the Sháh:—
‘May this head, throne, and crown for ever be.’
And furthermore I have it in command
To ask seven questions of thy men of lore.”
The Sháh replied: “Proceed; the highest honours
Await the eloquent.”
He bade the high priest
Come to his presence with the famous sages,
But sighs were on his lips the while in view
Of what the man might ask. “What are,” he thought,
The high priest with the learned,
Men mighty in all lore, came, and the spokesman
Revealed the secret, telling to the high priest
The words of Cæsar: “What is ‘the within’
In thy nomenclature, what ‘the without,’
O guide, who hast no other name therefor?
What is ‘the above,’ my lord, what ‘the beneath’?
What is ‘the infinite’ and what ‘the vile’?
What hath most names and ruleth everywhere?”
“Haste not,” the high priest answered thus the sage,
“And turn not from the path of understanding.”
He then proceeded: “O thou man of wisdom!
Give ear to each reply that I shall make:
There is one answer only to thy words.
As to thy question touching ‘the without,’
And ‘the within,’ it is an easy one:
The heaven is ‘the without,’ air ‘the within’;
They are the Glory of the Omnipotent;
God, touching this world, is ‘the infinite,’
For lore to turn thee from Him is ‘the vile’;
‘The above’ is Paradise, Hell ‘the beneath,’
And he is wicked that doth fear not God.
Next as to that with many names whose will
Prevaileth everywhere: O ancient! wisdom
Hath many names, and wisdom compasseth
The will of kings. One man may call it love,
Another faith, but in its absence all
Is pain and tyranny. The eloquent
Term it uprightness and the fortunate
Astuteness; 'tis at whiles long-suffering,
At whiles trustworthiness, for speech therewith
Is safe. So divers are the names of wisdom
That they exceed accompt. Allow that naught
Surpasseth it; it is the chief of goods,
And knoweth this world's hoarded mysteries,
Which mortal vision cannot penetrate.
Again, the stars that glitter in the sky
Are what the master can afford to slight
For understanding of the Maker's work.
The eye that gazeth cannot reckon them,
And heaven above is unattainable
As being measureless, so thou mayst scorn
Such reckonings and processes of Fate.
One that can follow not an arrow's course,
Shrewd though he be, will marvel still thereat;
Then what can be more futile, favoured sir!
Than to compute heaven's stars? This much I know,
And if another replication be
'Tis that the Maker's mysteries are vast.”
Bahrám,
On hearing, showed his pleasure, his heart brightened.
He bade a robe of honour be made ready
Of things most valued in his treasury,
And gave the archimage withal ten purses
Of drachms with raiment, steed, and much besides,
And then the envoy of illustrious Cæsar
Went from the royal presence to his lodging.
When Sol displayed its hand upon the sky
The king of kings sat on his golden throne,
And Cæsar's envoy came to court, and with him
The high priest wise and worshipful. They went
With joy before the king of kings, conversing
On many matters, and the Sháh's high priest
Said to the envoy: “Matchless, peerless sage!
What thing is so injurious that we
Must weep at its occurrence? What know'st thou
So useful to the world that men become
Exalted when it chanceth?”
Said the envoy:—
The wise aye will be great and powerful.
The person of the foolish is more vile
Than clay and undeserving of all good.
Thou spakest of the unwise and of the wise,
And hast received, maybe, the right response.”
The high priest said to him: “Consider well,
Reflect, and put not fish upon the dry.”
The envoy said: “O man approved by all!
One well may quote the sayings of the wise,
But, if thou knowest another answer, speak,
For knowledge giveth increment to fame.”
The high priest answered: “Think, for speech
resulteth
From thought and brain, and know thou that the death
Of one least harmful is the greatest loss
Of all, but thou mayst joy when bad men die,
Albeit death is common to us all.
This then is profit and the other loss:
Let wisdom judge the answer of us both.”
The Rúman gave assent to what he heard;
Those words seemed excellent to him; he smiled,
Did reverence to the Sháh and said to him:—
“How happy is the country of Írán!