1,301. “Turk”; i.e., “beauty.”

1,302. “Hindū”; i.e., “slave.”

1,303. Lit., “sugar triply refined,” qand.

1,304. “Put a chain upon your door.” The chain here meant is “the chain of justice or redress of grievances”, zanjīr-i ‘adl, which was attached to the door of the king’s palace, so that anyone suffering from injustice might by shaking it at any time call attention to his wrong, and obtain redress. This chain was also called “the chain of Nūshīrvān”, a Sāsānian king who reigned from A.D. 531 to 579, because it was instituted by him. It is spoken of in the Siyāsat-nāma of Nizāmu ’l-Mulk, the vazīr of Malik Shāh.

1,305. Versus ad coitum spectat.

1,306. See the last Note.

1,307. See Note 1,305.

1,308. i.e., may you live, but I shall die.

1,309. See Note 1,305.

1,310. See Note 1,305.

1,311. See Note 1,305.

1,312. i.e., the matter he delicately hints at would not entail serious consequences.

1,313. “To put a horse-shoe into the fire” means to make a person impatient to see you and subservient to your will. This was supposed to be effected by cutting the person’s name upon a horse-shoe, reciting some magic words over it, and casting it into the fire. The use here of the word shabdīz, “black horse,” is in reference to the night which is to pass before he gains his desire. The meaning then of the second hemistich is “Never mind the fact that the black horse’s shoe is in the fire”; i.e., “disregard any feeling of impatience you have for me to-night.”

1,314. “An everlasting lamp”; i.e., one whose brightness never changes with time. The allusion is either to herself, or to unvarying happiness.

1,315. Nard is the Persian backgammon.

1,316. Ham durust āyam archi dīr āyam. This hemistich is most probably taken from the proverb, Dīr āyad durust āyad, “Who comes late comes at the best,” or “One comes the better for coming late”, which is in affinity with the Latin, Festina lente, “Hasten, but do not be precipitate”: do not endanger the issue by undue haste.

1,317. Māhī means “fish”, and māh “moon”.

1,318. The term “sweet basil” is an allusion to herself.

The word used is qaranfulī, which is from its form specific, not generic. It is possibly used for ḥabaq-i qaranfulī, which, according to Steingass, is “sweet basil”. Redhouse, however, renders it “calamint”, and Vullers conjectures melissa; i.e., “balm.” All these plants, however, are of the mint kind, and belong to the natural order labiatœ.

It may possibly be “basil royal”. Steingass renders the Persian word shāh-siparam both “sweet basil” and also “basil royal”. In fact, as regards botanical nomenclature there is often in Persian great confusion, and it is very difficult to identify.

1,319. “Constrained to patience I renounced (my wish),” Bar sar-i ṣabr tauba mī-kardam.

Bar sar-i ṣabr is, I think, probably used in the sense of the Arabic ṣabran, “perforce”; e.g., fa‘ala-hu ṣabrā, “he did it perforce”; lit., “he did it as one in a bound condition.” The only other senses could be, “I made a vow of renunciation (of my wish) in the presence or name of patience”; or, “I made a vow of renunciation in the matter, or on the subject, of patience”; i.e., “I repented of, or renounced impatience.” The sense of I.O. MS. 1491 is, “I perambulated about or towards renunciation (of my wish),” Ba-sar-i tauba sair mī-kardam.

‘Ishva in the second hemistich seems to be used in the sense of firīb.

1,320. i.e., such as the girl who had now been selected.

1,321. i.e., when the day dawned and made the world white and luminous.

Night is called a dyer because it darkens and blackens the white of day.

1,322. i.e., they had ceased to be seen and to adorn. But I.O. MSS. 402, 777, and 1168, and the I.O. B. ed. have for bisāṭ, “carpet,” nashāṭ, “gladness”; 402, and the B. ed. have u, “and,” after nashāṭ, and the latter has ān, “that,” instead of az, “from,” before nashāṭ.

1,323. Ṭarāz, a town in Turkistan famous for the beauty of its inhabitants. (See Note 695.) “Turkistan”; lit., “China,” but no doubt, as generally in such cases, meaning Chinese Turkistan or Turkistan.

1,324. i.e., I was honoured, and enjoyed great good fortune.

1,325. “The earth, of musk”; i.e., the earth of the garden.

“The house, of golden bricks”; i.e., the house where he spent the night.

1,326. i.e., he had bright, sunny days, and at night enjoyed the society of a bright, moon-faced beauty.

1,327. “The moon’s term.” The moon means both the real moon, or rather month, here, and also the queen of the beauties, va‘da, “term,” signifying also, as applied to the latter, “promise.”

1,328. Lit., “the night made the world black upon the stars”; i.e., it totally obscured or obliterated all traces of them. The idiom means also “to destroy or devastate”, but here it is equivalent to rāh-ra bar kasī yā chīzī siyāh kardan; lit., “to make the road black upon a person or thing”; i.e., “to obliterate all traces of him or it.”

1,329. “The palace of the sky’s black coping”; lit., “the ambergris-like forelocks.” The sense of the distich is that the sky was dark and the moon invisible.

1,330. Lit., “made fresh their fresh-facedness”; or more freely, “renewed their cheerfulness of aspect.”

1,331. i.e., with plump hands and full, rounded breasts.

1,332. The meaning is that the idea of candles’ being behind must be discarded when all the candles which, in their brightness, are worthy of the name, namely, the girls’ faces, are in front; i.e., in front of them themselves.

1,333. “Rosy wine”; lit., “wine of the colour of (the flowers of) the Judas’ tree.”

1,334. i.e., by making the wine flow the cupbearers did some­thing in harmony with the music. “Drinking in harmony with the music” is an expression used.

1,335. A crystal bowl or cup is likened to a pearl-shell; cf. ṣadaf-gūn sāghar, “a pearl-shell=coloured cup.”

“Pearls”; i.e., “drops of wine.”

1,336. “Demons”; i.e., “tormenting passions.”

1,337. “With ropes”; i.e., “with the ropes, her locks.”

1,338. i.e., I played with her locks.

1,339. “The long hand”; i.e., “the rapacious hand.”

1,340. Kabāb, meat cut in small pieces, flavoured with onions and eggs, and roasted on skewers. But more generally, roast, baked, or broiled meat. (Cf. Note 568.)

1,341. i.e., your face is so bright that, like a lamp before the sun, I must die before it.

1,342. The person who sees a fairy, parī, or a demon, dīv, is supposed to become possessed, parī-dār, or dīv-dār (cf. dīv-dīd), but the mode of possession is not the same in each case, since the parī is of the good jinn or genii, and the dīv is of the evil. The parī-dār is “possessed” and “fascinated” in so high a degree that the intellect is, as it were, beclouded, as it might be, in a lower degree, by the sight of any extraordinarily beautiful object. (Cf. Note 1,525.)

The dīv-dār or dīv-dīd, on the other hand, is possessed of a demoniacal spirit, and is insane and helpless.

(Cf. Notes 1,525, and 1,620.)

1,343. Lit., “you have again cast the horse-shoe into the fire for me.” (See Note 1,313.)

1,344. The “moon” means figuratively the fairy-queen.

1,345. i.e., I am absolutely overpowered by your brightness and effulgence as a mote in the sun’s rays. By my own being which, like that of a mote is as nothing, I cannot conceal from myself or be oblivious of your overpowering effulgence, in which I am immersed.

1,346. The sense of this second hemistich is analogous to that explained in the last Note.

1,347. Lab ba-dandān gazīdan (or khāyīdan), “to bite or chew the lips,” means “to suffer shame or regret”.

Āb-i dandān makīdan, “to suck the water of the teeth,” means “to have desire or longing”. Another meaning of the distich is, “How long am I merely to taste your beauty?”

1,348. “Warm kisses,” būsa-yi garm; but I.O. MS. 1168 has, tūsha-yi garm, “warm food,” which perhaps in the light of preceding distichs is more apposite.

1,349. i.e., although you are formed for love.