How Shírín murdered Maryam and how Khusrau Parwíz put Shírwí in Bonds

Thenceforth the greatness of the Sháh increased,
And what had been a moon became a sun.
His days were spent with Cæsar's daughter; she
Was chief within his bower. Because of her
Shírín was sore, her cheeks were ever wan
With envy till at last she gave her bane,
And Cæsar's lovely daughter ceased to be.
None wotted of the trick because Shírín
Kept her own counsel, and Khusrau Parwíz
Gave her the gilded chamber when Maryam
Had been deceased one year.

Now when Shírwí

Was sixteen years of age, and in his stature
O'ertopped the men of thirty, his sire brought
The erudite to educate the prince,
While by command an archimage maintained
A kindly watch upon him day and night.
It happened that the archimage one morn
Went to his patron's and returning found
Shírwí as usual occupied in sport,
Saw that he had in front of him Kalíla
And Dimna* but that the fierce youth was holding
In his left hand a wolf's claw cut and dried,

And in his right a buffalo's horn, and these
He beat together as the humour took him.
Such actions, pastime, and behaviour
Vexed the archmage's heart who boded ill
From that wolf's claw, the buffalo's horn, and manners
Of that rude youth, and was in great concern
At what might happen through that ill-disposed
And luckless prince in times to come for he
Had seen the horoscope and made inquiries
Of minister and treasurer. He sought
The high-priest and reported thus to him:—
“This youth is wholly given up to play.”
The high-priest went at once and told the Sháh,
Who kept a careful eye upon his son,
On whose account his ruddy cheeks grew pale
In trouble for the future of the world.
His heart was full of pain, his liver ached
At what the readers of the stars had told him.
He said: “I wait the Lord of Heaven's will.”
When twenty-three years of the reign had passed,
And when Shírwí had gotten stalwart limbs,
The Great King was displeased because the child
Was lusty grown but not as he desired.
The monarch's mind, which else had been all smiles,
Was pained thereat, and he confined the youth
To his own palace with a foster-brother,
Disgraced on his account, and all that were
Attached to him or went to him for counsel:
There were above three thousand more or less.
Their palaces, connected each with each,
Were as a whole the prison of Shírwí.
They decked, draped, carpeted, and furnished them
With provand and the means of giving largess,
With male and female slaves, with wine and minstrels.
The place was all dínárs. The inmates passed
Their time in song and feast while forty men
Kept guard.

And now as episodes recite

Tales told by men who thought and spake aright.