Thus was it at the time of Núshírwán:
He was at once the Sháh and paladin,
At once a warrior and archimage,
The Fire-priest and the captain of the host.
He had his emissaries everywhere,
And trusted not the world to ministers.

None could conceal from him in great or small
The good and evil of the world's estate.
One day a loyal archmage of his agents
Took on himself to put this to the Sháh:—
“One time without reproof thou passest by
A fault. Another time the same offender
Is hung howe'er much he excuse himself!”
The Sháh replied: “When one doth own his fault
I am as leech, he is as wretched patient
That would avoid the dose and sheddeth tears;
If that dose fail I leech his soul no more.”
Another archmage said to him: “Be blest,
And sheltered from all ill on every side!
The captain of the host went from Gurgán
With privacy, and entering a wood
There for a while he slumbered. The Gurkíls
Bore off his baggage! He was left unfurnished,
And, further, turneth back on that account!”
The Sháh made answer thus: “We do not need
That militarist. How can he guard troops
Who cannot guard himself?”*

Another said:—

“Live happy evermore with archimages
To sit, to banquet, and repose with thee!
There is a famous chieftain present here,
Whose treasure passeth thine!”

The Sháh replied:—

“Yea, rightly, for he is our empire's crown.
I tender both his treasures and his life,
And toil to magnify him.”

Said another:—

“Great king! live ever and unscathed by ill!
Among the captives carried off from Rúm
Are many babes unweaned.”

He gave this sentence:—

“The little ones must not be reckoned captives.
We will dispatch them glad and in good case
To their own mothers.”

People wrote to him:—

“A hundred wealthy Rúmans offer ransom.”
“If they are doing it through fear,” he said,
“Sell each chief for a cup of wine and ask
No more because we do not lack their goods.
I will require their jewels, purses, slaves,
And gold and silver with the scimitar.”
They told him: “Of the rich men of the city
There are two merchants and they keep folk waking
The best part of the night with shouts of revel,
And twanging of the rebeck and the harp.”
He made them this reply: “No hardship this,
And do ye others that are wealthy too
Live like these twain in mirth and jollity;
Be inoffensive and live unaggrieved.”

One day they wrote to him: “Mayst thou be happy!
Far from thee ever be the evil eye!
The monarch of Yaman observed at court:—
‘When Núshírwán doth ope his mouth to speak
He talketh so much of the dead that those
Alive have their glad lives made sad thereby!’”
He answered thus: “All wise and high-born men
Speak of the dead: the friendship is not sound
Of any that would purge the heart of them.”
Another said: “O Sháh! thy youngest son
Doth act not with the justice of his sire.
He buyeth an estate at such a rate
As to aggrieve the seller!”

Said the Sháh:—

“This is not well, so let the seller keep
Both price and land.”

“O Sháh,” another said,

“Imperious, far from blame and from reproach!
Thy heart was gentle once: why hath it grown
So overbearing and so choleric?”
He thus made answer: “I had no teeth then,
And fed on milk because I could no other,
But since my teeth came, and my back grew straight,
My quest is flesh because I have grown strong.”
Another said: “I own that thou art mighty,
Our better both in counsel and in knowledge,
But how hast thou surpassed the kings of kings,
And made the whole world watch thy policy?”
“My wisdom is a thing,” he thus replied,
“That is beyond their ken. Sense, knowledge, counsel—
These are my ministers, my treasury
Is earth, my treasurer thought.”

Another said:—

“O king! thy hawk in chase hath bound an eagle!”
Thus said he: “Beat its back; why should it fall
Upon its better? Gibbet it on high
To suffer in its turn, for e'en in fight
The subject may not seek to conquer kings.”
Another chief—one of the emissaries—
Said thus: “O monarch of the world! Barzín
At morn departed with the host and met
A reader of the stars who prophesied:—
‘None will behold again this haughty chief,
This mighty army, and its equipage,
When once their backs are turned upon the king!’”
The Sháh replied: “Revolving heaven hath shown
Barzín's designs a loving countenance,
And stars and sun and moon will not destroy
That chieftain with his treasure and his host.”
Another archmage said: “The king, one day,
Bade choose a man, illustrious by birth,
To make the circuit of the sovereignty
Both for the sake of justice and to send

Reports concerning matters great and small,
And good or evil, to the court. Gashasp
Is both illustrious and old: 'twere well
That justice be administered by him.”
The Sháh replied: “Gashasp, though far from want,
Is still possessed by greed. Choose some one else,
Who toileth not upon his own behalf,
And is possessed of treasures of his own,
One of experience, upright and austere,
Whose first concern is for the poor.”

One said:—

“The chief cook hath a grievance 'gainst the Sháh
And chiefs, and saith: ‘I dress his favourite meats,
And serve them at cross roads. He savoureth not,
Nor toucheth, them!’ That loyal servant quaketh.”
“Too much food may disgust,” the Sháh replied.
Another said: “All thoughtful people blame
The king of kings because he goeth forth
Without an ample escort, and the hearts
Of all his friends are full on that account
For fear some enemy with ill designs
May suppliant-wise contrive to get at him.”
He made this answer: “Equity and wisdom
Protect the great king's person. Right sufficeth
To guard the just judge though he be alone.”
Another said: “O wisdom's mate! the prince
Of Khurásán said on the riding-ground:—
‘I know not why the king recalled Garshásp.’”
The Sháh made answer: “He hath left undone
My bidding and ignored my purposes:
I ordered him to ope for good or ill
My treasury's portal to deserving folk.
The man that is a niggard in his gifts
Concealeth all the monarch's Grace divine.”
Another said: “The great king is a magnate
With all men, and munificent and holy.
What hath Mihrak, that ancient servant, done
To have his pay reduced, his visage wan?”
The Sháh replied: “Mihrak hath grown too bold,
Relying on his former services.
He came to court and took his seat bemused,
And he was never save with wine in hand.”
An archmage of the intelligencers said:—
“The Sháh, when marching to encounter Cæsar,
Called only the Iránians to the war,
And so Írán became hard pressed by Rúm.”
He answered: “This hostility is innate,
'Tis war with Áhriman.”

Another time

One ventured to observe: “The Sháh selecteth
Troops differing from those of former Sháhs.
What look'st thou for in charger-riding Lions,
Expert of hand, upon the day of battle?”

He thus replied: “The cavalier of war
Ne'er must be satiate of combating.
Feast and the field of battle must be one
To him both by bright day and darksome night.
He never faileth in the hour of need,
And few or many make no odds to him.”
Another said: “O Núshírwán, the Sháh!
Live ever joyful and with youthful fortune.
A man was at the gateway from Nisá—
A servant and a trusty officer—
Who at the reckoning at the taxing-office
Was found short by three hundred thousand drachms.
He pleaded: ‘All are spent.’ Chiefs, archimages,
And tax-collectors are concerned.”

The king,

On hearing how the archimages claimed
The money from the officer, commanded:—
“Press not for what is spent: give him too some­what
Out of the treasury.”

Another said:—

“A gallant cavalier was hurt and long
Disabled. Cured he charged the ranks of Rúm,
Fell, and hath left behind him little ones.”
The Sháh commanded: “Be four thousand drachms
Assigned to them out of the treasury,
Because when any one is slain in war,
And leaveth babes as his memorial,
Whene'er the scribe shall read out from the roll
His name, his children must have drachms, so pay
A thousand thus to them four times a year.”
Another said: “Be happy all thy days.
At Marv the captain of the host hath gathered
Much wealth in money but he spendeth not,
And people are abandoning the march.”
He thus made answer: “Give that wealth—the cause
Whereby the land is made depopulate—
Back to the folk from whom it hath been taken.
Make proclamation of the fact in Marv,
And bid erect a gibbet at his door,
In sight of all his province and his troops,
And hang alive the tyrant on the gallows,
Head-downward, that hereafter nobody
Among our paladins may turn aside
In heart and spirit from our ordinance.
Why must he bleed the poor to get him wealth,
And joy his body to his soul's destruction?”
Another said: “God-fearing Sháh! thy subjects
Throng in thy court, extol thine equity,
And praise the Maker for thee.”

He replied:—

“Thank God that we inspire alarm in none.
Be it ours to tender yet more carefully
Both innocent and guilty.”

Said another:—

“O Sháh endowed with Grace and understanding!
The world is full of joy, delight, and sweets,

And lord and liege are dizzied in their heads
At night-fall with the din.”

“In us,” he answered,

“May small and great rejoice throughout the world.”
Another said: “O Sháh of power supreme!
Detractors speak with blame of thee and say:—
‘He squandereth vast treasures but he never
Hath felt the labour of amassing them.’”
He thus returned reply: “If I withhold
The wealth laid up within my treasury
From those deserving of it all my gain
Will turn to loss at last.”

Another said:—

“O thou exalted king! God grant that scath
May never come upon that soul of thine!
The Jews and Christians are thine enemies,
Are double-faced, and worship Áhriman.”
He answered thus: “A brave Sháh is not great
Save he be tolerant.”

“Mardwí* hath spent,”

Another said, “three hundred thousand drachms,
Famed king! out of thy treasury and more
On mendicants, and chiefly on himself.”
He said thus: “Such withal is our command:
‘'Tis well for thee to give to the deserving.’”
Another said: “O Sháh that toilest not!
Much largess hath made void thy treasury.”
He thus returned reply: “The open hand
Doth start a man afresh, both leaf and bough.
The world-lord, when a worshipper of God,
Hath at his disposition all the world,
But we have seen it niggard to the mean,
And greed and harshness tempt not me.”

“O king!”

An archmage said, “shrewd Kurákhán hath wrung
From famous Balkh three hundred thousand drachms,
And handed them to us who laid them up
Among thy treasures.”

“We,” he made reply,

“Require not drachms through others' sufferings,
So give them back to those from whom they came,
With somewhat also from the treasury,
Because the world-lord that adoreth God
Hath no desire to vex his subjects' hearts.
Raze Kurákhán's fine palace and enrich
His roofs with clay. His palace shall be waste,
His profit toil and, after toil, distress
And malison. Take from our roll his name,
And hold of no account his likes at court.”
Another said: “O Sháh of glorious race!
Thy converse turneth greatly on Jamshíd
And on Káús.”

Thus Núshírwán replied:—

“Oh! may our knowledge keep them ever young!
I speak of them that mine own head and crown
May be remembered after I am dead.”
“Why hideth,” asked another man, “the Sháh
His secrets from the illustrious Bahman?”

The Sháh replied: “He turneth him from wisdom,
And eateth of the fruit of his own lusts.”
One said: “O Sháh that tendereth thy subjects?
Why hast thou recently become remiss?”
He thus made answer: “I associate
With sage and archimage, for when the voice
Of Áhriman is at our ears our hearts
Grow void of counsel and our brains of sense.”
An archmage asked the monarch of the earth
To speak concerning kingship and the Faith,
And said: “A man of wisdom will allow
A faithless better than a kingless world.”
He thus made answer: “I have said the same,
And holy men have heard my words. The world-lord
Ne'er saw a faithless world though every one
Hath his own Faith. One man adoreth idols,
Another's Faith is pure. One said: ‘A curse
Is better than a blessing,’ but mere words
Will never wreck the world, so speak thy mind.
But when the great king too is void of Faith
No one will bring down blessings on the world.
Faith and the sovereignty are like the body
And soul; the twain support the world.”*

“O Sháh

Of joyous nature! thou hast oft observed,”
One said, “before the chiefs: ‘What time the throne
Is destitute of king then Faith and wisdom
Are worthless.’ Once thou saidest: ‘I am fortune,
And fortune's pretext both for good and ill,
And when one uttereth praises in the world
The crop in secret cometh back to me.’”
He answered: “Yea, 'tis well. The great king's head
Is fortune's crown. The world is as the body;
Kings are its head and crowned accordingly.”
Another said: “O Sháh, the people's friend!
Be thine the sovereignty and length of days!
Five days have passed, O lustre of the soul!
Since last the high priest came before thy presence.”
He answered: “I am not concerned thereat,
For he is occupied on mine affairs.”
One said: “O Sháh of sunlike Grace to whom
Time will bring forth no peer! we see a suitor
Attending court each morn, and that affairs
Are wrong with him, but wot not of his grievance.”
He answered: “In Hijáz* thieves plundered him
Of countless goods. That he may not be troubled
I have replaced them from the treasury,
And keep him at the court on this account
To see if he can recognise the thieves.”
Another said: “O Sháh of glorious birth,
The lord of bounty and the lord of justice!

Down from the time of Gaiúmart till now
No Sháh like thee hath filled the royal throne.”
He said: “I give thanksgiving unto God
That matters are as He would have them be.”
The sentences of Núshírwán are past,
The world is old but ever young my care;
My genius hath not blossomed to this last
Though keen it grew, such fire in eld was there!
* For many a year I told this history
Though hidden 'twas from Saturn, moon, and sun,
But since Mahmúd's name crowned my poetry
Its commendation through the world hath run.
The idolators of Hind he bringeth down
With sword whose sheen, like silk of Wash,* is bright.
Oh! may the age fare well through his renown,
And in his diadem the heaven delight.