1,001. The first hemistich is literally, “the king played with cups” (as a juggler); and the second, “he juggled with balls (used by jugglers), whilst the balls themselves were concealed.” I read with the B. ed. of 1328 muhra pinhān, and not with the I.O. editions muhr pinhān.

The latter, however, would mean, “whilst his signet-ring was concealed”; i.e., “whilst his authority was in abeyance.”

1,002. i.e., he did not at present practise open hostility, but deception. Dūd, “smoke,” means also “affliction”.

1,003. Lit., “he gave him the hare’s sleep,” khvāb-i khargūsh dād, i.e., the sleep of negligence.

“The hare’s sleep” means also sometimes “pretended negligence, sleeping with one eye open”.

1,004. Lit., “he directed (his) shaft or arrow,” tīr khvash kard. (Cf. ‘inan khvash kardan.)

1,005. i.e., drank up the founts of light, namely the moon and stars, as a snake would drink up founts of water. The meaning is simply that it was a pitch-dark night without moon or stars.

1,006. This and the next distich mean that the night was so dark that it was calculated to give rise to countless vain fears.

1,007. “The bright-hearted sky.” The bright heart of the sky is the moon, which on this night was under a black veil, as the gold in a jar may be under a covering or seal of pitch.

1,008. Ambergris; i.e., “blackness,” ambergris being dark in colour.

1,009. Bahrāmian; i.e., “martial, valorous,” Bahrām being the Persian name of Mars.

1,010. i.e., the arrow passed right through the mark in a moment.

1,011. i.e., his enemies could not use caution, so rapid and effectual were his arrows.

1,012. i.e., the arrow came and pierced and passed beyond the mark so rapidly that though the wound was seen the arrow was not, it having passed right through. On the other hand, where the arrow was visible there was no wound because the arrow had passed right through and gone beyond.

1,013. i.e., he made a mount of slain enemies on the plain, and wore down the mount to the level of the plain by the trampling of his horse.

1,014. “The falchion” is “the rays (of the sun)”.

“A bowl of blood” means “the round, blood-like disk of the sun”. The meaning of the distich is, “When the sun rose”; but there is also a sub-allusion to the sword and bowl used in executions.

1,015. I am reading zahra, “gall-bladder,” but one might read Zuhra, “Venus,” as a planet appearing in the early morning. (Cf. the last distich but one.)

1,016. Lit., “wagered its tongue.”

1,017. “Dragons”; i.e., “brave warriors.”

1,018. “As hairs”; i.e., as hairs naturally split at the ends.

1,019. Lit., “on his path”; i.e., where his path lay.

1,020. “Inclined to flight”; lit., “in the middle-place of flight,” dar miyāna-gāh-i gurīz. So I.O. MS. 1168.

Other I.O. MSS. read,

dar bahāna-gāh-i gurīz, “in the pretext-place of flight,” which, I think, would signify “finding reasons for flight”.

1,021. Lit., “when the king’s iron was in violent ebullition, or commotion.”

1,022. i.e., that we may throw the centre into confusion and rout it.

1,023. “Lions”; i.e., horses. “Dragons”; i.e., swords.

1,024. “The swarthy lions”; i.e., the brave warriors, possibly called “swarthy” as being Arabs.

1,025. “Those whose swords were soft”; i.e., their foes who did not use much energy.

1,026. i.e., they fled, raising the dust in their flight, as far as the Oxus.

1,027. Lit., “he made fresh over the world New Year’s festivities”; i.e., he made, as it were, a second New Year’s festival for the world.

1,028. Pahlavī, the older Persian spoken in Sāsānian times.

“With Persian tunes,” Pārsī-āhang; i.e., with tunes composed according to the Persian modes of music. So I.O. MS. 1168.

Other I.O. MSS. read,

Pārsī-farhang, “of Persian talent,” which has some support in the next distich but one.

With regard to Pahlavī, Hamza-yi Iṣfahānī in the Tanbīh says Pahlavī was one of the five dialects of Persia, which were Pahlavī, Darī, Pārsī, Ḥauzī, and Shīrāzī.

1,029. Lit., “One day with a blessed-fortuned ascendant Bahrām Gūr ascended his throne.”

There are two ascendants, one “the ascendant of birth”, ṭāli‘-i vilādat, the other “the ascendant of question”, ṭāli‘-i mas´ala, the latter being the sign of the zodiac which appears on the horizon when the astrologer is consulted upon some question, or which will appear at the time when it is proposed to carry out some design.

1,030. “Commander,” mīr (for amīr); i.e., mīr-lashkar.

1,031. “In times of injury”; i.e., at the times when injury should be inflicted on the foe in battle.

1,032. Īraj, the name of the youngest son of Farīdūn, the sixth king of the first or Pīshdādian dynasty of Persia. He was killed by Tūr, his half-brother, the second son of Farīdūn.

1,033. Ārash, the name of two persons, one a hero in the army of Minūchihr, the grandson of Farīdūn; the other the second son of Kai-Qubād the first of the second or Kayānian dynasty of Persian kings.

1,034. Gīv, the name of a Persian hero the son of Gūdarz and the son-in-law of Rustam (see the next Note). He lived in the time of Kai-Khusran, the third king of the second or Kayānian dynasty of Persia.

1,035. Rustam, prince of Sīstān (Seistan), and Zābulistān, the greatest of the Persian heroes, was the leader of the army of Kai-Kā’ūs the second king of the second or Kayānian dynasty of Persia. (See also Notes 212 and 2,078.)

1,036. Hizabr and Ẓirghām both mean “lion”, but as the distinction of name cannot be retained in English I have slightly paraphrased the hemistich.

1,037. As regards the “cloud”, the “wine” represents the “rain”, and the “sword” the “lightning”.

1,038. First hemistich, lit., “my hare’s sleep is concealed”; i.e., the fact that it is hare’s sleep is not apparent to people, but there is real vigilance under seeming negligence.

Second hemistich, lit., “it sees the enemy though it be asleep,” the “it” referring apparently to hare in the first hemistich.

1,039. i.e., the drunkenness is that of the elephant “in heat”, “mast” (lit., “drunken”).

“The laughter” is compared with the lion’s roaring.

1,040. See the last Note.

1,041. The Qaiṣar (the Cæsar); i.e., the ruler of the Eastern Empire.

1,042. This means possibly that he makes a kind of table of his enemy’s head.

1,043. i.e., I give into the possession of my friends. (Cf. dar āstīn kardan.)

Qārūn, the name of the son of Moses’s paternal uncle, the Korah of the Old Testament.

1,044. Kabābs. (See Notes 568 and 1,340.)

1,045. Ba-chunīn pai ghalaṭ ki afshurdam seems to be an ellipsis for ba-chunīn pai ki dar ghalaṭ afshurdam.

1,046. i.e., the possessions of that robber, the khāqān, Hindū having the sense here of robber.

1,047. i.e., we are the slaves of it.

1,048. Hama dar sar shudand-u sar na-shudand; i.e., all came to ruin, and did not become exalted.

1,049. “From white or black”; i.e., from any one in the world. It is possible to translate, “no one has witnessed, whether white or black,” but this does not accord so well with the first hemistich.

1,050. i.e., being only ordinary game they are marks for ordinary simple weapons.