(Translation)

“If Heaven, by a trick, snatched my Díwán out of my hands,
Thanks be to God! He who made the Díwán * is still with me!
And if Fate plucked from me a string of pearls fit for a king,
Yet I grieve not at its loss, since the remedy is with me.
And if the wind tore a flower from a branch of the rose-bush of my
talent,
A garden full of anemones, eglantine and basil is still with me.
And if one of my shells of brilliant pearls was emptied,
I still have a mind filled with pearls like the sea of 'Ummán.
What matters it if a few drops of the sputterings of my pen are lost?
There still remains with me a talent bountiful as the April cloud!
If the sweet water of my verse has been cast to the winds like dust
It matters little, for with me is the Fountain of the Water of Life.
And though my heart is grieved at the loss of my Díwán,
Why should I grieve at this, since my pearl-producing genius re-
mains?
And if the praise of the King of the World is, like the fame of his
justice,
Spread abroad throughout the earth, the praise-producing talent is
mine!
Although I could compile another Díwán, yet
My life's work is wasted, and regret for this remains with me.
If this vile Age is unkind to me, what matter
If the favours of the King of the Age are mine?
That just Prince Mu'izzu'd-Dín, whose virtue cries,
‘Whatever of glory can enter the Phenomenal World is mine.’
The chief of the favours which in all circumstances
The King of the Age doth show me amongst all my peers
Is this, that by his favour one of noble rank says to me
‘Rejoice, O Ibn-i-Yamín, for the constituent parts of the Díwán
are in my possession!’
Life has passed: may he continue successful until Eternity,
And may the daily portion of me his servant be prayers for the
King so long as life remains to me!”

The second entry in the Mujmal is very brief, and Date of Ibn-i-Yamín's death merely records the death of Ibn-i-Yamín on the 8th of Jumáda ii, 769 (Jan. 30, 1368), this date being further commemorated in the following chronogram:

This is followed by a quatrain * said to have been uttered by the poet a little before his death:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“Regard not Ibn-i-Yamín's heart of woe;
See how from out this transient world I go.
Qur'án in hand and smiling, forth I wend
With Death's dread messenger to seek the Friend.”

Dawlatsháh devotes an article to the poet's father as well as to himself (Nos. 6 and 7 of the fifth Ṭabaqa), but Particulars given by Dawlatsháh concerning Ibn-i-Yamín and his father contributes few material or trustworthy facts, though he cites one fine poem of 14 couplets by the former, whose death he places in the year 724/1324. According to him Amír Yamínu'd-Dín, the father of our poet, was of Turkish origin; settled as a landowner at Faryúmad, where his son was born, in the reign of the Mongol Sulṭán Khudá-banda; and enjoyed the favour and patronage of Khwája 'Alá'u'd-Dín Muḥam-mad, who was in the fiscal service of Sulṭán Abú Sa'íd, and who was killed near Astarábád by the Sarbadárs in 737/1336-7. Concerning the son, Ibn-i-Yamín, he tells us little, save that he was the panegyrist of the Sarbadárs, which is doubtful, and that he died in 745/1344-5, which is almost certainly incorrect; but he endeavours to make up for this dearth of information by a digression of ten pages on the history of the little Sarbadár dynasty, which lasted about fifty years and was finally extinguished by Tímúr about 788/1386. The Haft Iqlím, Átash-kada and Majma'u'l-Fuṣaḥá practically yield no further information, except that the last-named work states that Ibn-i-Yamín was the panegyrist of Ṭughá-Tímúr. Owing to the loss of his Díwán, as described above, it is impossible to determine with certainty who were his patrons and to whom his panegyrics were chiefly addressed.

Ibn-i-Yamín's extant work consists of his Muqaṭṭa'át, or “Fragments,” most of which are of a philosophical, ethical Extant poems of Ibn-i-Yamín or mystical character. An edition of them was printed at Calcutta in 1865, and I also possess a pretty and carefully-written manuscript dated Rajab 5, 881 (Oct. 24, 1476). A German rendering of many of these poems by Schlechta-Wssehrd has also been published . * The following fine verses on the evolution of the soul are amongst the best and most celebrated of Ibn-i-Yamín's poems:

The following is a rather free translation of the above:

“From the void of Non-Existence to this dwelling-house of clay
I came, and rose from stone to plant; but that hath passed away!
Thereafter, through the working of the Spirit's toil and strife,
I gained, but soon abandoned, some lowly form of life:
That too hath passed away!
In a human breast, no longer a mere unheeding brute,
This tiny drop of Being to a pearl I did transmute:
That too hath passed away!
At the Holy Temple next did I foregather with the throng
Of Angels, compassed it about, and gazed upon it long:
That too hath passed away!
Forsaking Ibn-i-Yamín, and from this too soaring free,
I abandoned all beside Him, so that naught was left but HE:
All else hath passed away!”

The same ideas have been equally well expressed, how- A parallel passage on the evolution of the soul from the Mathnawí ever, by the great mystical poet Jalálu'd-Dín Rúmí, who lived a century earlier, in a very well-known passage of the Mathnawí which runs as follows:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“I died from mineral and plant became;
Died from the plant, and took a sentient frame;
Died from the beast, and donned a human dress;
When by my dying did I e'er grow less?
Another time from manhood I must die
To soar with angel-pinions through the sky.
'Midst Angels also I must lose my place,
Since ‘Everything shall perish save His Face.’
Let me be Naught! The harp-strings tell me plain
That ‘unto Him do we return again!’”*

(Another Fragment)

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“Only for one of reasons twain the wise
Possession of this varied world do prize:
Either to benefit their friends thereby,
Or else to trample down some enemy.
But he who seeketh wealth upon this earth,
And knoweth not wherein consists its worth
Is as the gleaner, who with toil doth bind
His sheaf, then casts the harvest to the wind.
Naught but a weary soul and aching back
Accrue to those who understanding lack.”

The following is typical in its Manichæan and Malthusian pessimism:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“Knowest thou wherefore the child no gratitude bears
E'en to the father who makes him the chief of his heirs?
‘'Twas thou,’ he seems to say, ‘who my peace didst mar
By bringing me into a world where such miseries are!’”

The fragment next following also represents a line of thought common with Ibn-i-Yamín and others of his school:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“That God who on Creation's Primal Day *
The first foundations of thy soul did lay,
Who in His Wisdom did for forty morns
Fashion the house of clay thy soul adorns,*

Who bade the Pen * inscribe upon thy brow
Whate'er betided thee from then till now,
It ill beseems Him on the Judgement-Day
‘This was well done, and that done ill’ to say!
For he who sows the camel-thorn can ne'er
Expect the aloe-tree to blossom there.
Since, then, the Muslim and the Christian stand
Subject alike to His supreme command,
‘Why should He give,’ in wonder ask the wise,
‘To this one Hell, to that one Paradise?’”