1,350. A “hare’s sleep”, khvāb-i khargūsh, is the sleep either of feigned negligence, or of carelessness and fancied security. Here it signifies the latter, the sense of the hemistich being, “how long will you lull me into fancied security, beguiling me with promises?”
1,351. “This ancient wolf of vulpine craft” is “the world or fortune”.
1,352. “In wolfish, vulpine dealings will engage”; i.e., “will deal savagely and cunningly with me.”
1,353. Or, “like one who is drunk enough to feel equal to taking lions.”
1,354. “You from Khallukh”; i.e., “you are handsome,” Khallukh being the name of a town in Turkistan famous for the beauty of its inhabitants.
1,355. “From Ethiopia I”; i.e., “I am your slave.” In the next distich she expresses her unworthiness of him.
1,356. Lit., “like the full moon.”
1,357. “Beyond ‘Abbādān there is ne´er a town,” Laisa qaryata warā´a ‘Abbādān. The words of this hemistich, which are in Arabic, are evidently an Arabic proverb. They are incorrectly written in all the copies I have consulted. The best is that of I.O. MS. 1491, Laisa qarya(h) varāyi ‘Abbādān, rather a curious mixture of Arabic and Persian.
“‘Abbādān, the most southern town of Babylonia (‘Irāq ‘Arabī). Originally it was on an island on the Persian Gulf and was still there in the tenth century; but now it is more than twenty miles from the coast.” (Encyclopœdia of Islām.)
Jurjānī (about A.D. 1460) describes it as a town at the mouth of the Tigris on the Persian Gulf, but he must mean the mouth of the Shaṭṭu ’l-‘Arab.
Redhouse says, “The island at the mouth of the Euphrates on the Persian Gulf.”
Steingass says, “Name of an island in the Tigris.”
These are both similar errors to that of Jurjānī. Besides this, it is not an island, but a town.
The meaning of the hemistich is that the fairy-queen is the ne plus ultra of desire, and that now that he has her near he must not neglect his opportunity in the hope of finding any one more beautiful beyond.
1,358. “Demand a mat and pour out sand.”
“A mat”; i.e., the mat on which executions were carried out. “Sand”; i.e., the sand put down to absorb the blood shed.
1,359. i.e., “either let me share your throne and be your partner, or fix me on a gibbet as a throne may be fixed on a high framework.”
The word chār-mīkh means both a gibbet and also a framework on which a throne might be erected.
1,360. By “bee”, and “thorn” he means himself.
1,361. “Rose-honey sweets”; i.e., a confection of rose and honey.
1,362. In the case of the dead, i.e., extinguished lamp, the brand would be the blackness of the wick. If murda, “dead,” be taken as murda-dil, “dead in heart,” i.e., “ignorant, wicked,” as zinda, “alive,” is used for zinda-dil, “alive in heart,” i.e., “enlightened, pious, a Ṣūfī,” the brand would be ‘aib, i.e., “disgrace.”
1,363. The I.O. B. ed. and that of 1328 read, bi-gardad instead of na-gardad. If this reading be adopted the hemistich should be rendered, “If the sun turn away from thought of burning.”
1,364. He means presumably (see the preceding distich) that he has been asleep and dreaming up to the present, and that such dreaming is not the desire he had with regard to her. Such dreams, however, come from his having seen her face. (See the next distich.)
1,365. He seems to imply that his nights have been passed only in dreams inspired by her face.
1,366. “Rubini” ad sanguinem in virginis stupratione effusum spectant.
“Sardachates” ad penem spectat.
1,367. The dagger may be said to clutch the waist in so far as it is attached to it.
1,368. The lady who relates the story is speaking here on her own part.
1,369. See Notes 274, 1,201, 1,562, and 1,698. The meaning is that she dressed in black.
1,370. “The king’s umbrella”: one of the insignia of royalty.
1,371. The back of the fish is darker than its head.
1,372. “Black”; i.e., the black of the pupil.
1,373. “The seven thrones” means generally Ursa Major. Here, however, it denotes the seven planetary heavens, to the sphere of each one of which a special colour is attributed, all of them making up the seven colours mentioned here.
1,374. “Higher than black there is not any hue.” The sense is that black, as the colour attributed to the sphere of Saturn, who is in the seventh, farthest, and highest planetary heaven, is necessarily the highest colour.
1,375. “Dawn’s scales”; i.e., the sun.
1,376. i.e., he clothed himself in gold-worked garments.
1,377. Jamshīd, the name of a mythical king of Persia, the fourth of the first or Pīshdādian dynasty. He is said by Firdausī to have reigned 700 years, and to have been killed by order of Ẓaḥḥāq, an Arab invader (Albīrūnī quotes, “of the Amalekites”), who then became king of Persia, and reigned 1,000 years.
The name is composed of “Jam” from the Avestic Yima, “a king,” and “shīd,” Avestic khshaēta, “radiant.”
1,378. An allusion to “the Cup of Jamshīd”, “Jām-i Jamshīd”, or “Jām-i Jam”, which, according to the Persian fabulists, represented the whole world, and hence is also called “Jām-i jahān-namā”. It was marked with seven lines, each of which had a name.
1,379. “Fine or exuberant display” is no doubt, I think, the sense here of ra‘nāyī.
“Amber upon a golden ring” means with respect to the yellow rose the yellow stamens with the petals. With regard to Bahrām it signifies that in his dress he added yellow to yellow in the way of yellow stones, golden ornaments, and gold-worked garments.
1,380. “That sweet-spoken bride”; lit., “that sugar-scattering taper.”
1,381. Lit., that she should associate rubies with sugar-candy.
1,382. Lit., “He desired her to engage in flute-playing,” but the author means, “to speak in flute-like tones.”
Arghanūn, generally rendered “organ”, means, according to the Burhān-i Qāṭi‘, any wind-instrument of music. Other meanings given by that dictionary are not applicable here.
1,383. “Adorned and lovely.” I have translated Chīnī-bāz so on the analogy of ‘arūs-bāz; but Chīnī-tāz, “of Chinese beauty,” or Chīnī-nāz, “of Chinese coquetry,” may be the correct reading.
1,384. Ṭarāz, a town in Turkistan famous for the beauty of its inhabitants. (See Note 695.)
1,385. i.e., loses his head.
1,386. New Year’s Day in the Persian Calendar is the 21st of March, the beginning of Spring.
1,387. Lit., “she would raise her head in lady-consortship.”
1,388. See Note 695.
1,389. This and the preceding distich are remarks of the Author’s. The meaning is that flattering is as mischievous in a meddlesome fool as adornment in a balista. The flattery of the one is as misleading as the adornment of the other.
1,390. i.e., each one disdained the affection he showed her.
1,391. “The picture-house of China’s realm”; i.e., probably, either of Chinese Turkistan or of Turkistan, both famous for their “pictures” of beauty. The Author speaks later of the slave-dealer himself as the merchant from Cathay, but Khaṭā (Cathay) may be either North China or Chinese Turkistan. (See the end of Note 694.)
1,392. Khallukh, a town in Turkistan famous for the beauty of its inhabitants.
1,393. To have the ear bored for a ear-ring and to wear one was a token of slavery.
1,394. Lit., “although her tray is given over to sugar, there is (only) a dish of liver from it for the people.”
By the first hemistich is meant that she is all sugary sweetness. In the second the word jigar “liver, heart”, means also “affliction”; i.e., here, affliction through love of her.
1,395. The slave-dealer is speaking here on his own part.
1,396. i.e., as surely as you do the one the other will follow. This peculiar mode of expression in Persian is always indicative of the uselessness of some act supposed.
1,397. The second hemistich is not a metaphor of particular application, but must be taken more generally as an adverbial amplification of the first, and it might be freely rendered, “in these abnormal and disconcerting circumstances.”
Nard is the Persian backgammon.
1,398. Lit., “his heart was not becoming satiated with the girl.”
1,399. Lit., “except the door of intercourse, which she closed.”
1,400. See the distich to which Note 1,388 is appended.