In this side-place (the world) I behold two butterflies (day
and night);
Of face, one is fair; the other, dark.
Of none, become they the moth (of desire) of the (little)
candle (of joyousness);
For they read only the order of vexation to us (men of the
knowledge of God).
“Taraf-gah” signifies—díd-gáh, which may mean—gá,e nishastan (a place of sitting), either a house, or a man's buttocks.
The first line may be:—
2In this place of sight (man's body) I behold two (small) butterflies (the joy and the grief of the world).
The candle signifies—a heart enkindled with the tranquillity born of affluence and ease.
If na khwáhand be read for bi khwahand, the second line will be:—
For they ever read (obey) not our order.
Give splendour to this house (the body) with the lamp (of
the love of God),
Which may make roast meat of these two butterflies
(Time).
The adorner (Nizámí) of the carpet of this garden (of
history)
Kindles the lamp (lustrous verse) from (former) lamps in
this way,
Saying:—When Sikandar (son) of Faylikús obtained
The hateful news of rapine by Russia,
He slept not that night from desire of having revenge;
From delivering opinion of war in every way,
Saying:—“Into this matter how may I bring action,
“So that I may deliver myself from this covenant with
Daválí?”
The next day, when this steed of red colour (the morning
sun)
Unloosed the surcingle from the flank of the steed (night)
of dark colour,
—Sikandar sate on that grey Khatlan steed,
Which arose like the wind and leaped like the lightning.
He caused his horse to leap the raging Jíhún (Oxus),
And urged him thence towards the plain of Khwárazm:
The lamp of the light of the heart and the candle of the house of life are the consumers of these two butterflies; for Time is subservient to the holy men of God.
These couplets are a caution to Sikandar, who was joyous at the conquest of Chín, and again despondent at hearing of the ravaging of the Russians.
9This steed was given to Sikandar by the Kháḳán of Chín.
Behind his back, an army like the river (Jíhún):
The reckoning (of the stages) of the plain on (at) his
finger,
He travelled the plain of Khwárazm;
Came from the Jíhún; passed to Babylon.
For the reason that he might make the world void of the
Russians,
No repose was his on water (by the river-side, to quaff
wine), or on the dust (to hunt).
He made his eye sleepless in that assaulting (-expedition);
Made the passage over the plain of Sakláb (in Turkistán):
Saw the desert all (full of) the tribe of Khifchák;
Saw among them dolls (lovely women) of lily-limbs
(veil-less):
In countenance like fire (ruddy); in cheek like water
(lustrous),
More resplendent than the moon and than the sun;
All eyes closed (in modesty), man-fascinating,
(Even) the augel (the recluse of angelic nature)—impatient
at the sight of them.
Neither a veil on the surface of their face,
Nor theirs—fear of brother, or of husband.
The army, celibacy-professing, of scanty power (of
patience),
—When they beheld such faces veil-less,—
See canto liv. couplet 94.
In Paradise the Húrs are tang-chashmán; or they glance at none.
19“'Azab” signifies—in Arabic, a man without a woman; in Persian, a woman without a man. Here the first meaning is appropriate.
The first line may be:—
20The army, all celibate, of great ardency.
By youth's ardour became agitated;
In that matter (of seizing the women) became strenuous in
endeavour.
(But) from fear of the king no one made an assault,
Nor displayed impetuosity towards those dolls (the lovely
women).
When the king beheld the lovely ones of that path (of
Khifchák),
To the king that custom (of being unveiled) appeared not
well.
He beheld Parí-forms, like pure silver;
Every soldier thirsty; they (the women) like water.
He reflected on the need of the army;
For woman is woman; and doubtless man, man.
One day he gave resolution to this matter;
Gave admittance to the chiefs of Khifchák:
Favoured them after that royally;
Exalted them by his own honouring:
Spoke secretly to the old men of Khifchák,
Saying:—“The woman face-concealed in secret (veiled),
—best.
“That woman who shows her face to a stranger,
“Has neither respect for herself nor shame for her
husband.
“If the woman herself be of stone or of iron (impregnable
chastity),
“Since she has the name woman,—verily, she is woma.”
Observe the force of dast-bází in the second line.
In the first line, turk-tází signifies—dast andází.
23The second line may be:—
24Every soldier thirsty for (desirous of) them like water.
See couplet 29; and canto liv. couplet 109.
30When those desert-keepers of distraught path
Heard,—each one, the king's words,
They turned the head from the order of that matter (the
veiling of the face);
Because they found their own customs even so.
With reverence they said:—“We are slaves;
“We are hasteners to the order of the Khusrau;
“But to bind the face (with a veil) is not part of our
covenant;
“Because this habit is not the custom of Khifchák.
“If thy custom be the binding up of the face,—
“In our usage it is the stitching up of the eye.
“Since the not looking at the face of the strange woman
(is) best,
“The crime is not on the face (of the woman), but on the
eye (of the man).
“Moreover, if on our part it (the non-veiling) be displeasing
to the king,—
“Why is it necessary for him to look at the face and the
back (of the woman)?
“For our maidens sufficient is this castle;
“For they have no business with anyone's chamber.
“Make not the face of this people vexed with the veil;
“Be thou veil-caster on thy own face.
“The one who draws his eye within the veil
“Looks at neither the moon nor the sun.
“If the world-possessor give the excellent order (that we
surrender our life before him),
“For him, of us whomsoever he wishes, he will give his life.
The second line may be:—
Heard the king's words one by one.
“Yes; we are the king's troop, order-bearing;
“But we depart not from our custom.”
When the king heard that eloquence,
His tongue became feeble in that dispute.
To him, the truth passed that with that tribe
Counsel-making had no worth.
He unfolded this incident to the sage (Balínás);
And from him that remedy-deviser (Sikandar) sought a
remedy,
Saying:—“These lovely ones of chain (twisted)-hair,
“It is a pity that they conceal their faces from none.
“From them,—is calamity to the stranger's eye,
“As to the moth from beholding the candle.
“What may we do so that they may display a gentle
disposition,
“May make the face concealed from the stranger?”
The one intelligence-understanding (Balínás) gave answer
like this,
Saying:—“I take thanks for the king's order.
“In the middle of the plain I will set up a tilism,
“Of which event they will make the evening tale.
In the “Asiatic Journal,” vol. xxxi. January-April, 1840, p. 237,—
quoting the Arabic work Fihrist, A.D. 987, by Muhammad bin Isháku-
The first who composed tales and apologues were the kings of the first (the Achaemenidae) dynasty (B.C. 558-331) of the Persians; and the Sassanidæ (A.D. 226-641) amplified and augmented them.
The Arabs translated them into their own tongue. The first book was the “Hazár Afsána,” the Thousand Tales (said to have been composed by Humá, the daughter of Bahman, B.C. 465), which were uttered for the first time to Alexander the Great, in order that he might keep awake and be on guard.
50“At its face every woman who glances—
“By it will not pass save face-concealed (with the veil).
“On the condition that the king will here (in the middle
of the plain) sit,
“And from it will bring to my hand whatever (of tilism-
Of good and bad (of this matter), whatever the sage desired,
the king
Made right (ready) one by one with force and gold.
The sage, world-experienced, of auspicious star,
Entered upon a plan of image-fashioning.
In this splendour-place, a bride of new regulation
Made of hard (black) stone, he set up on the road.
On it, a sheet (a veil) of white marble,
Like the leaf of the lily on the head of the musk-willow.
Every woman who used to look at its modesty
Used, through its shame (its being ashamed), to become
face-concealed:
Used, through shame (of herself), to lower the veil on her
face;
The cheek concealed and the face hidden.
The Khifchák woman bound her face from that day
When the fashioner (Balínás) fashioned that form in hard
stone.
To the delineator the king spoke, saying:—“This form,
“How exercised it effect upon this tribe of stone heart?
“For they listened not to our words;
“(Yet) they look at this stone and obtain understanding
(of propriety)!”
The sage of vigilant fortune gave information,
Saying:—“Of Khifchák the heart is hard like stone.
“Although they are in body (white like) silver, they are
of stony (black) heart;
“For this reason, they are inclined to stony hearts
(tilisms).
“When their chattels (persons) pass by this stone (the
tilism),—
“By it, their hard heart becomes soft;
“Because—a face with this hardness (blackness) of hard
stone,
“When it keeps itself concealed for the sake of honour
and reputation,
“If we conceal the face, it is lawful,
“Against the tyranny (the lust) of the stranger and the
shame of the husband.
“Another reason, which is celestial (the effect of the
planets),
“I utter not; for it is a hidden mystery.”
In the book of manners it is written—that it is not proper for the wife to look at her husband so that their four eyes should meet. Nay, when her husband looks at her she should gaze on the ground.
In “The Customs and Manners of the Women of Persia,” translated from the Persian by James Atkinson, 1832, it is said:—
When women come out of the bath, they ought to dress in gay apparel; and, if they have any engagement, proceed to the house of their friend or lover. If they meet a handsome young man on their way, they must cunningly remove a little of the face-veil, pretending:— “It is very hot. How I perspire! My heart is wounded,” and talk in this manner, and stand a little while, till the youth smells the 'itr (otto of roses), becomes captivated, and sends a message describing the enchanted and bewildered state of his mind.
66The effect of a ilism is due to earthly, coupled with celestial, elements.
By the power of this exalted tilism,
The face-binding (the veil) became bound about those
faces.
Still that tilism set up
Remains in that desert unspilled.
Round about it, a forest of wooden arrows,
As is the grass on the marge of the water-pool.
Than the feathers of the arrow, eagle-overthrowing (fixed
in the soil),
(More) numerous are the eagles round about it.
All the tribe of Khifchák who arrive there,
Arrive bent (bowed) before this peerless image (the
tilism).
If from the road a footman or a horseman arrive,
Like the worshipper they offer worship to it.
The horseman who urges his steed before it,
Places an arrow from the quiver in its quiver (the arrow-
The shepherd who there causes his flock to arrive,
Places before it a sheep of the flock.
The eagles come from the lofty zenith;
They leave not a hair of that sheep.
From fear of the eagles of steel-claw,
No one wanders about that hard stone (lest the eagle
should snatch him like the sheep).
Behold the image (the tilism) which the image-fashioner
accomplished!
Sometimes, it tied the knot (so that people worshipped it);
and sometimes, loosed (so that people fled from it).
“It tied a knot” means—the worshipping of that image by the people of Khifcháḳ; for the worshipping of an object not God is a knot on the thread of life.
Come, cup-bearer! that virgin, face-concealed (the untasted
wine of senselessness in the cellar),
Give me, if solicitude for a husband be hers.
I will perform hand-washing with pure (wine of senselessness)
from the impure (apparent wine);
To the virgin like this, it is proper to draw the hand
(washed as regards all other virgins)!
“It unloosed a knot” means—the wearing of the veil by the women of Khifcháḳ. This was a difficult matter, the loosening of which with the nail of deliberation appeared impossible.