Kalílah said, ‘They have related that a troop of monkeys had their abode in a mountain, and lived upon the fruits and herbage there. It befell that on a night more dark than the hearts of the guilty, and gloomier than the souls of men of ruined fortunes, the frost of winter began to assail them, and from the gust of a boisterous wind of icy chillness the blood in their bodies began to congeal.
The poor creatures, distressed by the cold, were seeking shelter, and having briskly girded themselves in search of it, were running about in every direction. On a sudden, beside the road, they beheld a piece of sugar-cane lying shining,170c and, under the idea that it was fire, collected sticks and laid them about it, and commenced blowing, and a bird on a tree over against them called out ‘That is not fire,’ but they paid no attention, nor desisted from their unprofitable task. Meanwhile it happened that a man170d came there and said to the bird, ‘Trouble not thyself, for by thy speaking they will not be deterred, and thou wilt meet with vexation.
And to exert oneself in correcting and amending such persons is like trying a sword upon a stone, or to seek from deadly poison the properties of a sovereign antidote.
When the bird saw that they did not attend to his words, from excess of kindness he came down from the tree in order that he might make them hear distinctly his advice, and admonish them against the futile toil they were undergoing. The monkeys collected round the bird, and separated his head from his body, and my dealings with thee have just the same character, and I do but waste my time and speak vain words, and besides that no advantage will accrue to thee, I am in danger too of being damaged.’
Damnah said, ‘O brother! the great have always fulfilled their duty faithfully towards their inferiors as regards advice and admonition, and have shunned partiality and dissimulation; and it is incumbent on men of real eminence to persevere in the due practice of counsel and exhortation, whether any one attends to them or not.’
Kalílah said, ‘I do not close the gate of advice against thee, but I am afraid that thou hast based thy affairs on perfidy and deceit, and hast adopted as thy practice, conceit and egotism: ‘The worst of qualifications is obstinacy.’ And when thy repentance comes, it will be unavailing, and however much thou mayest gnaw the back of thy hand and lacerate the surface of thy breast, it will be to no purpose, and a proceeding which is based on deceit and treachery will terminate in disgrace and conclude in dishonor. So it happened to the cunning partner; and the perniciousness of his stratagem turned out the noose of the snare of calamity, and closed on his own neck; while his careless associate, by the blessing of his uprightness and honest simplicity, attained his wish.’ Damnah said, ‘How was that?’
Kalílah said, ‘They have related that there were two associates, one of whom was shrewd and the other careless. The former, by his extreme acuteness and cunning, could cast a thousand spells upon the water, and him they called Sharp-Wit. The latter, from his excessive stupidity and dullness, could not discern between things profitable and injurious, and him they called Light-Heart. These two formed the intention172 of trading, and set out upon their travels in company with each other, and went on traversing many a stage and march. It chanced that they found a purse of gold in the way and viewing it as an unlooked-for piece of good-fortune, halted. The clever partner said, ‘O brother! there is in this world plenty of profit that is never realized. Now it appears to be best to be content with this purse of gold and to finish our lives in the nook of our cottages in unfettered ease.’
They then retraced their steps, and, entering the city, alighted at a lodging. The careless partner said, ‘O brother! come on, let us divide this gold, and freeing ourselves from anxiety, spend our several portions according to our several inclinations.’ The clever one replied, ‘It is not advisable to divide at present. Our judicious course would be to take such sums as we require for our immediate expenditure, and place the rest very carefully in deposit somewhere, and every certain number of days come and take from thence as much as we require, and preserve the remainder in the very same manner, which will be less perilous and more safe.’ The stupid partner was deluded by this specious talk, and met his plausible proposal with approval, and taking out cash enough to meet his present173 wants, in the manner aforesaid, the rest they, in conjunction, buried under a tree; and directing their course towards the city, went and stopped, each in his own quarters.
The partner who affected to be astute went to the foot of the tree, and having dug out from the earth the gold, carried it off; and his careless associate, unaware of what had been done, was engaged in spending the cash he had, till nothing was left. He then came to the clever one, and said, ‘Come now, in order that we may take up something from that deposit, for I have become very much in want.’ The sharp fellow dissembling his knowledge of what had happened, said, ‘Very good.’ Then both came together to the foot of the tree, and the more they sought the less they found. Sharp-Wit then seized Light-Heart by the collar, saying, ‘Thou hast made away with this gold without any one’s knowing about it.’ The poor man swore and protested and bemoaned himself, but all in vain. In short, the matter came from wrangling to a summons before a judge, and from dispu-ting to an appeal to the law. The cunning partner took the careless one to the house of the Ḳáẓí, accused him, and recounted to the Ḳáẓí the particulars of the case and the tenor of the dispute, and after Light-Heart had denied it, the Ḳáẓí demanded of Sharp-Wit, proof in support of his charge. Whereupon Sharp-Wit replied, ‘Ḳáẓí! may God most high preserve thee!
I hope that the Glorious and Almighty God through His perfect power will give that tree the power of speech, in order that it may furnish testimony of the theft of this unjust and treacherous person who has carried off the whole amount of the gold, and deprived me of my share. The Ḳáẓí was astonished at these words, and after much discussion and long debate they came to this agreement, that the next day the Ḳáẓí should present himself at the foot of the tree, and call upon the tree to bear witness; and if its evidence should corroborate the charge, he should issue his commands in accordance with its testimony. The sharp partner went to his house, and having told the whole story to his father, withdrew the veil from the business and said, ‘O father! it was in reliance on thee that I formed the idea of the tree’s evidence, and in confidence of thy support that I planted this tree of artifice in the court of the judge, and the whole affair depends on thy kindness. If thou wilt agree to it we will carry off that gold, and get as much more174 and pass the remainder of our lives in comfort and ease.’ The father asked, ‘What can it be, which depends upon me in this matter?’ The son answered ‘The centre of that tree is hollow to such an extent that if two persons were concealed in it they could not be seen. Thou must go to-night and stop in the tree until to-morrow when the Ḳáẓí comes and calls for testimony, then thou must give thy evidence in the usual manner.’ The father said, ‘O son! Give up the thought of deceit and trickery, for though they mayest deceive thy fellow-creatures, thou canst not deceive the Creator.’
Oh! many are the artifices that prove a source of ruin to their author, and the just recompense of which recoils on him, so that he is left disgraced and exposed to ignominy, and I fear lest thy deceit should turn out like the artifice of the Frog. The son inquired, ‘How was that?’
The Father said, ‘They have related that a Frog had taken up its abode beside a Snake, and fixed its dwelling hard by that cruel tyrant. As often as the Frog had young ones the Snake used to devour them, and pang her heart with the burning regret for the loss of her children. Now this Frog had a friendship with a Crab. One day she went to him and said, ‘O kind friend! excogitate for me some suitable device, for I have a powerful enemy and a mighty foe, against whom resistance is not to be thought of, and from whom it is not possible to remove or migrate,174a for the spot where I have fixed my residence is an exceedingly pleasant place and heart-delighting abode. It is a meadow, the verdant environs of which are as exhilarating as the garden of heaven, and whose delicious breeze diffuses odour like the ringlets of the fair.
And no one would of his free choice abandon such a spot, nor withdraw his heart from this exemplar of the Paradise above.
The Crab said, ‘Do not distress thyself, for one can pinion a strong enemy with the lasso of deceit, and precipitate a powerful foe into the snare of stratagem.
The Frog said, ‘What problem from a book of stratagems hast thou solved with reference to this? And what remedy hast thou secured to repel the assault of this malevolent foe?’ The Crab replied, ‘In such and such a place there is an ichneumon, contentious and mettlesome. Catch some fish and kill them, and drop them from in front of his hole to the abode of the snake, in order that the ichneumon may devour them one by one, and keep going on in quest of another. It is quite certain that when he comes to the Snake’s hole, he will carry him off too, and liberate thee from his wicked injuries.’175a The Frog by this plan, which was in comformity with the decree of fate, slew the Snake, and when after this occurrence two or three days had passed, the ichneumon felt and inclination to bestir himself in quest of fish to eat,175b and repeat what he had now become accustomed to. He again set out in search of fish by the same road that he had previously measured with the foot of desire, and as he found no fish he devoured the Frog with all its young.
And I have adduced this story to thee that the conclusion of deceit is embarrassment and the end of fraud and treachery is repentance and humiliation.
The son said, ‘O father! curtail these speeches and suspend these remote and far-off anxieties, for this matter offers but little trouble and much advantage.’ The desire of gain and fondness for his son led the poor old man from the alighting-place of uprightness and religious principle into the wilderness of injustice and perfidy; and the recondite saying, ‘Verily your wives and your children are a temptation to you,’176 was made patent. Having abandoned, then, the path of honorable feeling with neglect, and having entirely folded up the carpet of magnanimity, he thought fit to undertake a proceeding which is prohibited and forbidden both by law and custom, and in that dark night he placed himself in the tree, with a heart gloomy and foul. In the morning—when that judge of clear intelligence, the sun, showed himself in the tribunal of the sky, and the perfidy of black-visaged night became clear as day to mankind—the Ḳáẓí with a number of the notables, presented himself at the foot of the tree, and a crowd of people formed in lines to view the sight. The Ḳáẓí then turned his face towards the tree, and after stating the charge of the plaintiff and the denial of the defendant called upon him to explain the state of the case. Thereupon a voice issued from the tree,saying ‘Light-Heart has taken away the money and acted injuriously to Sharp-Wit, his partner.’ The Ḳáẓí was astonished, and sagaciously discerned that some one was concealed in the tree, and that some adroit contrivance would be required to capture him.
He then gave orders for them to collect a quantity of firewood, and deposit it round the tree, after which they set fire to it, so that they extorted a cry of anguish176a from that imprudent and vain schemer. The covetous old man for some time bore with it, but when he saw that his life was in peril, he called for quarter, and the Ḳáẓí, having brought him out and comforted him, inquired how matters stood. The half-burned old man gave a true narration of what had occurred, and the Ḳáẓí, being informed of the circumstances, related to the people the honest disposition and forbearance of Light-Heart, and the perfidy and villainy of Sharp-Wit, and simultaneously with this, the fraudulent old man removed the furniture of life from this transitory world to the mansion of eternity, and in the heat of his burning worldly passions arrived in the flames of the next world’s penal fire. The son, too, after suffering the severest punishment and roughest usage, had to put the corpse of his father on his shoulders, and so betake himself to the city: while Light-Heart, through the blessing of his truth and honesty, and integrity and good parts, received back his gold and proceeded to occupy himself with his own matters.
And the moral to be drawn from the relation of this story is, that people may know that the final result of deceit is distasteful, and the conclusion of treachery is misfortune and contempt.
Damnah said, ‘Thou hast fixed on prudence the name of deceit, and given to counsel the title of fraud and perfidy. I have managed this affair with sound judgment and effected this important matter with just discernment.’ Kalílah replied, ‘Thou art at such a point in imbecility of judgment and weakness of counsel that the tongue fails in describing it, and such is thy position as to baseness of mind and overpowering greediness of place that explanation is helpless in narrating it. To thy master and benefactor, the advantages of thy craft and deceit are such as thou seest, so that in the end, what will be the punishment and torture which will overtake thee! for the infamy of thy double-face and double-tongue, will yield an evil result.’ Damnah rejoined, ‘What harm is there in having a double face? for the delicate rose by being double-faced, forms the ornament of the garden; and what fear from being double-tongued? for the pen of the minister with its two tongues, is the safeguard of property and land. The sword which has but one face—its office is to drink blood; while the comb, which has two faces, rests on the place where the hair is parted—on the forehead of the lovely.
Kalílah answered, ‘O Damnah! cease this rhetoric, for thou art not that double rose that the eye should be refreshed by gazing on thy beauty, but rather the heart-afflicting thorn from which nought but injury results to men; nor art thou that two-tongued pen that thou shouldest furnish information of the secrets of state and of the empire: nay, thou art the forked-tongued serpent, the wound of whose fang is nought but fatal poison. Moreover, the serpent, even, is better and more excellent than thou, for from one of his tongues comes poison, and from the other the antidote, while venom rains from both thy tongues, and neither has the vestige or trace of an antidote: and it is proper that from a man’s tongue all that is salutary should be produced for his friends, though if poison be brought forth for his foes, it is right enough; according as a sage has said,
Damnah said, ‘Leave off rebuking me, for, perhaps, a reconciliation will spring up between the Lion and Shanzabah, and the foundation of friendship and concord may be again laid.’ Kalílah replied, ‘This speech again belongs to the class of sayings which are fraught with impossibility; but thou, perhaps, hast not learned that three things are stable before the occurrence of three things, but, after that, their stability enters into the category of impossibilities, and their abiding into the class of things that cannot be. First, the water of a fountain and conduit is sweet so long as it has not reached the sea, but when it has joined the ocean, thenceforward purity and sweetness are not to be expected from it. Secondly, unanimity amongst relations continues so long as malevolent and wicked men have not intruded between them: but after the interference of evil and ill-disposed persons, harmony and concord in the circle of relatives and kinsmen are not to be looked for. Thirdly, the reservoir of companionship and friendship will continue clear so long as they allow tale-bearers and mischief-makers no opportunity of speaking; but when double-faced and double-tongued persons find the means of introducing their calumnies between two affectionate friends, no confidence can after that be placed in their friendship; and hereafter, if the Ox should escape from the claws of the Lion, it is not possible that he should be moved by his courtesies or kind speeches, or should show any eagerness for reconciliation and a renewal of confidence, and, even on the supposition that the gates of amity could remain open, each would be apprehensive of the other.’
Damnah said, ‘If I relinquish my attendance on the Lion, and keep assiduously to the border of my cot, and, seizing with the hand of eager purpose the skirt of the advantages of thy society, should place the head of seclusion in the collar of retirement, what then?’ Kalílah replied, ‘Heaven forbid that I should associate with thee longer, or incline again to thy society, and I have all along been kept in terror by intimacy with thee, and in my heart have unceasingly repudiated thy alliance. For the learned have said, ‘One should abstain from the society of the ignorant and depraved, and embrace the service of the sensible and good, since union with vicious and profligate persons is like fostering a snake. However great pains the snake-catcher may take in looking after the serpent, in the end it will give him a taste of poison from its gums;179 and attendance on men of understanding and virtue resembles the tray of the perfumer, of which, though one may not get any of the contents, the sweet odour of its extract of roses will yet eventually fill his nostrils with fragrance.
O Damnah! how can one hope for faithfulness and kindness from thee?—thou who hast thought fit to practice such behaviour towards a king; and ignore the favors of him who has made thee his friend and honored [minister], his confidential adviser, and illustrious to such a degree, that, under the shadow of his fortunes, thou mountest elevated like the sun; and by means of attending on whose heaven-resembling threshold, thou dost place the foot of boasting on the forehead of the twin polar stars.
And from such a person, should I choose to remove myself a thousand leagues, a lofty understanding would hold me excused, and if I abandon the society of so worthless a person, reason will affirm that I have been rightly guided.179a
And just as the companionship of the good and pious possesses immense advantages, so association with base and wicked persons produces infinite mischief, and the society of the bad is rapid in its effects, and its injurious results manifest themselves in a very brief period; wherefore it behoves him that is thoroughly wise to form friendship with men of wisdom and of praiseworthy conduct and veracious and amiable manners, and to avoid false, slanderous, unamiable and profligate companions.
And whoever chooses an unworthy friend or leans upon the aid of an ignorant person, will meet with what that Gardener met with.’ Damnah inquired, ‘How was that?’
Kalílah said, ‘They have related there was a Gardener who for a long time had been occupied with various kind of tillage, and had spent his fair life in the culture of gardens and pleasure-grounds. He possessed a garden whose Eden-typifying parterres, by the delightfulness of their shrubs, threw the dust of envy into the eyes of the gardener of Iram; and, by the freshness of their flowers and streamlets, infixed a scar on the breast of the flower-garden of Khawarnaḳ.180a A peacock-like splendour shone on its many-coloured trees, and the radiance of the diadem of Káús180b gleamed on its gold-bespangled flowers. The surface of its ground was bright like the cheek of a gem-covered beauty, and the breath of its zephyr was fragrant as the dwelling of an ambergris-selling artist. Its trees, youthful in promise, were, by the abundance of their fruits, back-bent like men of age; and its luscious180c fruits, like the sweetmeats of Paradise, were fully ripened without the heat of fire. The hues of its vernal and autumnal fruitage reached the utmost verge of freshness and delicacy; and its apples, unfraught with evil,180d like the chins of heart-ravishing silver-bodied beauties, made prey of hearts; and, by their lovely colour and exhilarating odour, brought a whole world into their fetters.
The pear suspended from each bough flagons of the water of life, with cups full of the sharbat of the sugar-cane, and, by the public proffer of an unartificial comfit,181a stimulated the inclinations of the indolent devoid of capital and interest.
And the quince, clothed in wool, like vigil-keeping Ṣúfís,181b thrust forth its head with its yellow cheeks from the bars of the monastery of creation, while its dust-discoloured countenance acquainted the grief-soiled hearts of lovers with the affection181c of their moon-resembling mistresses.
The golden ball of the orange, amid the verdant foliage, was like the globe of the most bright sun shining in the azure181d sky, and the gilded censer of the citron, with its heart-delighting odour and exhilarating perfume, was flashing in the court of the garden.
On one side was the incomparable fig, the description of whose excellence has been placed by the hand of Omnipotence on the leaf of [the verse] ‘By the fig,’182 and in which the same hand has mingled a sweet confection from the poppy and sugar-candy,182a and on the other side grew the pellucid grape, the recital of whose perfections has been described by the pen of infinite wisdom on the illustrious page, ‘And we cause corn to spring forth therein, and grapes,’182b—like a moist blister that has started up on the palm of the green leaf; and, on the edges of the parterres, the gold-striped circular melons, with tender down and fair182c cheeks, showed themselves, like the full moon, which appears on the horizon of the cerulean sky.
And the old peasant was so much attached to each tree, that he felt neither paternal182e cares nor solicitude for offspring; and passed his time in that garden in solitude. But, to be brief, he at last became oppressed by the horror of loneliness, and much dejected by the dread his solitary and separate life inspired.
In short, heart-sore from the grief of being alone, he came forth to wander in the plain, and, at the skirt of the mountain, which stretched out limitless as the area of the expanse of hope, he was walking onward, when, by chance, a Bear, too, of uncouth manners and ungainly form, of unpleasant aspect and foul nature, had, by reason of feeling lonely, turned its face from the top of the mountain downward. The moment they met, on both sides, through the similarity of their nature,183 the chain of kindly feeling was put in motion, and the heart of the peasant became inclined to the society and companionship of the Bear.
The inexperienced Bear, observing the civility of the peasant, became completely attached to his society, and at a slight signal, placed his head at his feet and entered that Paradise-resembling garden, and by the peasant’s presenting and honoring him with those delicious fruits, the friendship between them was cemented and the root of the plant of amity became firmly implanted in the ground of each of their hearts.
And whenever the Gardener, from excessive fatigue, placed the head of tranquillity in the shade of repose on the pillar of rest; the Bear, from motives of love and affection, sate beside his pillow and drove away the flies from his face.
One day the Gardener had reclined and gone to sleep in his accustomed manner, and a number of flies collected on his face. The Bear was occupied in driving them off, but, however often he dislodged them, they presently returned, and when he repelled them on this side they made an onslaught on the other. The Bear waxed wroth, and lifting up a stone of twenty mans’ weight183c—inwardly resolving to kill the flies—dashed it down on the face of the hapless peasant. The flies suffered no harm from the terrible blow of that stone, but the old Gardener was reduced to dust: and hence the sages have said that a wise enemy is every way better than an ignorant friend.
And I have related this story with this object, to show that friendship with thee presents the same result as if one’s head should be exposed to destruction and one’s breast be the target for the shafts of calamity.
Damnah said, ‘I am not so imbecile as not to distinguish that which is for my friend’s advantage from what is injurious to him, or not to discriminate between what is good and evil with respect to him.’ Kalílah replied, ‘I acknowledge that thou hast not reached this degree of folly, but the dust of selfishness makes the eyes of the heart dark and blinded. It is to be expected that from some interested motive, thou wilt neglect thy friend and get ready a thousand incongruous evasions to excuse thyself, just as in the matter of the Lion and Shanzabah, thou hast stirred up all this treason and still layest claim to innocence and goodness, and the case of thee with thy friends is like the case of that Merchant, who said, ‘In a city where a mouse devours a hundred mans of iron, what wonder if a sparrow-hawk should carry off a lad?’ ‘Damnah inquired, ‘How was that?’
Kalílah said, ‘They have related that a Merchant of small means was going on a journey; with prudent forethought he placed a hundred mans of iron in deposit in the house of a friend, in order that if an emergency should arise he might make that his capital, and thus support the thread of his existence. When the Merchant had brought his journey to an end, and had again reached his destination, he found himself in want of the iron, but the friend who had taken it in trust had sold the iron and expended what he got for it. One day the Merchant went to him to demand the iron. The trustee brought him into the house, and said, ‘O sir! I had laid by that iron in deposit in a corner, and felt quite secure, not having observed a mouse’s hole there, and, before I found it out, the mouse had taken advantage of the opportunity and had eaten up the whole of the iron.’ The Merchant replied, ‘Thou speakest the truth, for mice have a great fondness for iron, and their teeth have great power over such a juicy and tender morsel.
The trustworthy and veracious man was delighted at hearing these words, and said to himself, ‘This silly Merchant has been deceived by my speech, and has given up all thoughts of the iron. I can do nothing better than give him an entertainment, and in his reception observe all the ceremonious requirements that are usual, so as to settle the affair.’ He then invited the Merchant to a feast, and said,
The Merchant replied, ‘To-day a matter of importance has occurred, but I promise that I will return early nextmorning. He then left the [fraudulent trustee’s] house and carried away a son of his, and having concealed him in his own dwelling, presented himself in the morning at his entertainer’s door. The host, in great distress, loosed the tongue of apology, saying, ‘O worthy guest! hold me excused, for ever since yesterday a son of mine has been lost, and I have two or three times had him cried in the city and environs, and have gained no tidings of the missing one.
The Merchant answered, ‘Yesterday when I came forth from thy house I saw a lad of the description you give carried off by a hawk, which, flying, bore him though the air.’ The trustee screamed out, ‘O devoid of understanding! why dost thou utter that which is impossible? and why expose thyself to the charge of lying so enormously? A hawk, whose whole body does not weigh half a man,185 how could it lift and bear through the air a lad weighing ten mans?’ The Merchant laughed and said, ‘Be not surprised at this!—in the city where a mouse can devour a hundred mans of iron, a mousing hawk too can fly off in the air with a lad of ten mans’ weight. The fiduciary perceived how matters stood and said, ‘Be not troubled, for the mouse has not eaten the iron.’ ‘Be not distressed,’ rejoined the other, ‘for the hawk has not carried away thy son. Return the iron and take back thy son.’
And I have adduced this story that thou mayest know that among a set, where treason to one’s benefactor is admissible, it is clear enough what they would think permissible towards others; and since thou hast allowed thyself to act thus towards the king, others can have no hope left of finding thee faithful, nor any expectation of thy fulfilling thy duties. And I see clearly that it is necessary to keep aloof from the darkness of thy evil deeds, and that it is incumbent on me to avoid the blackness of thy deceit and treachery.
When the conversation of Kalílah and Damnah had reached this point, the Lion had finished the business of the Ox, and had laid him prostrate in dirt and gore. As soon, however, as the Lion had made an end of Shanzabah with the claws of chastisement and had delivered the expanse of the forest from his presence, and when the violence of his rage had diminished and the fury of his wrath was allayed, he fell a-thinking and said to himself, ‘Alas! for Shanzabah, with all his goodness, and understanding, and judgment, and talents. I know not whether I have acted in this matter rightly or made a false step, nor whether in what they have reported to me of him they have discharged their duty faithfully or trodden the path of treachery. I at least by allowing myself to be urged on to this, have involved myself in a misfortune, and with my own hand have made my faithful friend drink of the potion of death.
The Lion hung down his head remorsefully, and loosing the tongue of reproach, inveighed against his own folly and rash haste; and the spectre of Shanzabah seemed, by his piteous plight, as with words,186 to convey to the ears of the Lion the purport of this quatrain.
The perpetual smile of the Lion was changed from grief at this event into weeping, and his constitutional heat was doubled by the violent burning of this occurrence.
Damnah, who beheld from a distance the traces of regret manifest on the countenance of the Lion, and marked the tokens of repentance upon his front, broke off his dialogue wlth Kalílah, and going before the Lion, said,
What is the cause of thy pensiveness and what the reason of thy meditation? Where is a time happier and a day more auspicious than this when the king moves proudly to the post of triumph and victory, and the enemy is groveling in the dust of disgrace and the gore of defeat?’
The Lion said, ‘As oft as I recal the respectful service, the various converse, the proofs of wisdom, and187a the many abilities of Shanzabah, I am overcome with pity and grief, and distress overwhelms me: and, in truth, he was the prop and support of the army, and my retainers, by his aid, rapidly increased in prowess.’
Damnah replied, ‘There is no ground for the king to pity that ungrateful traitor, but rather to offer the thanksgivings due to God for this triumph which has been attained, and to unclose the gates of gladness and rejoicing in the court of the heart for this victory which has presented itself.
We must regard this auspicious blazonry of conquest with which the register of successful fortune is adorned, and this august heralding of victory, with which the chronicle of happiness is ornamented, as a high preface and sublime opening to the pages of time.
O monarch! asylum of the world! to pardon one from whom our life is insecure is a fault, and it is the act of wise men to confine a state-enemy in the prison of the grave. The finger which is the ornament of the hand and the instrument of grasping and retaining, should a serpent inflict a wound upon it, is cut off; and men regard the pain of this operation as the very spring of comfort.
The Lion was somewhat soothed by these words, but time exacted just retribution for the Ox, and in the end the career of Damnah closed ignominiously and with disgrace, and the plant of his evil deeds and the seed of his false words coming up, he was slain in vengeance for the Ox, and the results of perfidy and deceit have ever been uncommendable, and the consequences of fraud and malevolence to be deprecated and inauspicious.
The King said, ‘I have heard the story of the calumniator and traducer, who, with consummate craft, clothed the beauty of truth with the guise of suspicion, and having caused his benefactor to swerve from the path of generous feeling, led him to incur the stigma of ingratitude and bad faith; and, after his words, mingled with guile, had made an impression, induced the Lion to exert himself to ruin the pillar of his state and crush the support of his own imperial sway. At the present time, should the eloquent sage see it to be advisable, let him recount the termination of Damnah’s career, and set forth in what manner the Lion, when, after the occurrence of that event, he had returned to his senses and become suspicious with regard to Damnah, sought to remedy what had happened, and how he obtained information of the circumstances of his perfidy, and by what shifts Damnah contrived to hold on,189 and what stratagem his friend devised, and what was the issue of his affairs at last. The sage said,
In truth, prudence and foresight require that kings should not stir the instant they hear anything, nor despatch a mandate with reference thereto, until they have been informed of the certainty of the affair by clear proof and lucid demonstration.
But after that the words of designing persons have chanced to persuade, and an unpraiseworthy action or speech which cannot be commended has actually gone forth, the remedy and amends would be to punish the calumniating sycophant in such wise as might serve for a warning to others; and, from dread of that chastisement, no one would pursue the same conduct in future, and thus it would be a duty to warn all to abstain from the like behaviour.
And the story of the Lion and Damnah verifies this dictum, for when the former got intelligence of the perfidy of the latter, and was apprised of his deceit and wickedness, he inflicted on him such a punishment that the eye of heedfulness in the others was enlightened, so that they made the verse, Wherefore take example from them, O ye who have eyes!’190 the continual task of recitation of their tongue. And the manner of this event was in this wise: when the Lion had finished the business of the Ox, he repented of the precipitancy he had shown in that affair, and bit the finger of contrition with the tooth of reproach, and laid the head of regret on the knee of amazement.
He was ever musing, pensively saying, ‘Why did I act precipitately in this matter,’ and continually reflected, ‘Wherefore did I not manage this affair with caution and deliberation?’
The Lion passed a long time in this manner in grief and chagrin, and in consequence of his dejection of mind and distracted feelings, the enjoyment of the beasts was suspended and the state of his subjects became one of distress, and the deep saying, ‘People follow the faith of their kings,’ diffused its influence through the inhabitants of that forest, so that all of them became melancholy and sad.
And he was incessantly recalling to mind the meritorious services, aid and former devotion of Shanzabah; and as his sorrow grew, confusion and distress overpowered him, and he was wont to find consolation in talking of his sayings or acts, or in hearing him spoken of.
He continually gave private audiences to each one of the beasts, and required them to narrate. One day he was conversing with a leopard on this subject, and was describing his heart-burnings and the disquietude of his soul. The leopard said, ‘O, King! to brood much over a business in which the hand of counsel falls short of the skirt of remedy, leads to madness, and to seek a cure for a matter which is inscribed in the circle of impossibilities, lies not in the centre of reason and understanding; and sages have said,
And whoever exerts himself in searching for a thing which it is impossible to gain, may possibly, without obtaining what he is in quest of, let slip that too which he already has; just as the fox desired to get possession of the fowl, and lost the piece of skin of which he had boasted.’ The Lion inquired, ‘How was that?’
The leopard said, ‘They have related that a hungry Fox had come forth from his hole in quest of food, and was roaming about in every direction and was measuring the forest sides with the step of greediness and avidity in search of a morsel. Suddenly an odor which invigorated his soul reached his nostrils. Turning on the scent of it he saw a fresh piece of skin, the flesh of which had been eaten by some wild beast that had left the hide. When the eyes of the Fox lit upon that piece of skin they brightened up, and the greatest vigor was diffused through his limbs at viewing that quantity of food.
The Fox, having got that piece of skin into the claw of possession, turned his face towards his own abode.
In the midst of the way he happened to pass beside a village, where he beheld fat fowls busy feeding in the wide plain, while a slave named Zírak191 had girt the loins of guardianship in watching them. The Fox’s appetite for the flesh of the fowls was excited, and the delightful idea of the brains of their heads made him forget the piece of skin. In the midst of this state of things a Jackal chanced to pass by that hamlet. He inquired, saying, ‘O brother! I observe that thou art very thoughtful. What event has occurred and what occurrence has taken place?’ The Fox replied, ‘O friend! Thou seest those fowls, the tongue of whose individual condition continues to repeat the meaning of [the verse], ‘And the flesh of birds of the kind which they shall desire,’192 and the mysterious meaning of [the verse], ‘Therein shall ye have that which your souls shall desire,’192a pervades them from head to foot.
And after a long interval during which I have suffered from the pains of want and the torments of hunger, the treasurer of the stores of God’s bounties bestowed on me this piece of skin, and now the craving of appetite requires to get one of these fowls into its grasp, and cloy the palate of desire with the sweetness of its flesh, which possesses the deliciousness of life.
The Jackal said, ‘Alack! alack! a long time has passed over me, during which I have been in ambush for these fowls, and on the watch to make a prey of one of them, but that slave Zírak, who is their guide, keeps his eye on the path of protection after such a fashion, that the huntsman of imagination, from dread of his guardianship, cannot bring their forms under the net of his scheming; and the painter of the mind, from fear of his defensive care, is unable to draw their lineaments on the tablet of fancy; and I pass my life in this longing, and live from day to night and from night to day on a mere idea. Thou that hast found a fresh piece of skin, regard it as a piece of good-fortune, and relinquish this vain pretension.
The Fox said, ‘O brother! till we can elevate ourselves according to our heart’s wish upon the higher apsis of desire, to sit down disappointed in the lower apsis of mortification and abasement would be a great pity; and until we can gaze on the rose of enjoyment in the parterre of repose, to direct our steps into the thorny wake of adversity and suffering would be a glaring fault.
And high spirit does not suffer me to cower over an insipid piece of skin, and give up the thought of the delicious flavour of fat flesh.’ The Jackal replied, ‘O thou of vain longings! to reprehensible greediness thou hast given the name of high spirit, and on culpable cupidity thou hast imposed the title of the preamble193 of greatness, and art insensible to the maxim that greatness is in the poverty of the darvesh, and happiness in contentment.
Thou hast no better course than to be content with the portion which they have assigned to thee from the court of ‘Our daily bread is allotted by fate,’ and not tamper with vain and unsuitable aims, to which the result, ‘Whoever seeks what does not concern him, verily he relinquishes what does concern him,’ is attached.
And I fear that through this impertinent scheming thou wilt lose that piece of skin also, and wilt thyself be overthrown, and there is a close resemblance between thy story and the case of that Ass who sought a tail and lost his ears also.’ The Fox inquired, ‘How was that?’
The Jackal said,
The Fox, from excessive greediness and avidity, frowned and said,
Do thou survey the spectacle how I, by adroit stratagems, will get possession of a fat fowl, and behold with what artifice I will draw a comely prey into the net of possession.’ He said this, and turning towards the fowls, he left the skin in that same spot. The Jackal, when he saw that his advice made no impression on the obstinate mind of the Fox, turned his face away from him, and made off to his own abode. Meanwhile, a kite that was hovering there, chanced to observe that piece of skin, and imagining it to be a dead animal, brought it, with the utmost speed, into the area of its own possession, and soared up into the sky. In the other direction, the Fox had not as yet got near the fowls, when Zírak jumped out from his hiding-place and threw a walking-stick at him. As soon as the stroke of it came upon the fore-foot of the Fox, the poor animal, in fear of his life, tore away his thoughts from the fowl, and in the utmost hurry, stumbling along,194 made for that piece of skin. When he reached the destined spot, not a trace of the skin did he see. He then turned his face towards the point of prayer, and was about to make a piteous detail of his misfortunes, when just as he was weeping over his hard case, he beheld the kite carrying the piece of skin in its claws, as it exclaimed,
The Fox, from grief at missing the fowl and regret at losing the skin, beat his head against the ground till his brains were dashed out. And the reason of inventing this story is, that the king has destroyed with his own hand one of the Pillars of the state, and gives no heed to the edification of the remaining nobles, and neglects to encourage the hearts of his courtiers and to show favor to his chiefs and the leaders of his army. Shanzabah has been slain and nothing will bring him back, but the other ancient ministers remain aloof from the service.
The Lion, after much reflection, said, ‘This speech is the essence of good counsel and loyalty, but with regard to Shanzabah I have committed a great fault, and the chief part of my distress is to compensate for it.’
The leopard said, ‘The remedy and compensation for it is not obtainable by grieving but will be procured by right counsel and just judgment.
The advisable course is that the king of beasts should cease from lamenting and mental discomposure, and base his actions on deliberation, and proceed in the affair of Shanzabah and in the investigation of what befell him in such a manner that the right and wrong of it may be clearly manifested to his sagacious mind; and if that which they brought to the ears of the king respecting Shanzabah be really true, he, by his own act, arrived at the punishment of his own perfidy and the retribution of his treason. But if they have uttered calumnies regarding him and have made false statements, then must the slanderers and sycophants be made a target for the arrow of vengeance.
The Lion said, ‘Thou art the vazir of the kingdom, and I have long been proud of thy judicious procedure, and have made thy foresight my guide and example in securing advantages and repelling misfortunes. Take up this matter in whatever way clear reason and lucid intelligence may require and extricate me from the whirlpool of distress.’ The leopard engaged that he would, in a short time, present to the bright notice of the king the real state of this affair, and not leave under the veil of concealment or the curtain of delay one particle of the minutest points of its full ascertainment.
The Lion was comforted by this promise, and, as it was late, the leopard demanded his congé, and betook himself to the fulfilment of his promise. It chanced that he passed by the abode of Kalílah and Damnah, and he observed that a dispute was going on between them, and that loud words were spoken by both parties. Now the leopard had from the first been suspicious of Damnah. At this time, when the sound of talking and expostulation reached his ears from their dwelling, his doubts were augmented. He advanced and and standing behind the wall, opened the ear of attention to their words. Kalílah said, ‘O Damnah! thou hast done a great deed and embarked in a mighty affair, and having led the king to a breach of faith, thou hast caused him to be associated with utter perfidy, and thou hast kindled the flame of mischief and disorder among the beasts and wild animals, and I do not feel secure that the punishment thereof may not each moment come upon thee, and that thou mayest not be overtaken by the trouble and exposure consequent thereupon.
And I know that when the inhabitants of this wild become acquainted with thy act, no one will hold thee excused nor lend their aid to rescue thee; nay, all will be unanimous in voting for slaying thee and putting thee to the torture, and it is not advisable for me after this to dwell with thee; for they have said,
Get up and unite thyself in friendship with some other comrade, and hereafter refrain from converse or intercourse with me, for thou wilt get no more friendship or companionship from me.’ Damnah said, ‘Dear friend!
Lay not the beginnings of separation and exclude me not from thy society, nor reproach me any more in the matter of Shanzabah, for to recall a thing which is past does but cause chagrin, and to deliberate on a matter which comes not into the area of remedy, belongs to the class of impossibilities. Put from thy thoughts this vain regret, and turn them towards mirthfulness and freedom from care, since one foe has set out for the world of nonentity, and the atmosphere of desire has been cleared from the dust of doubt, and the cupbearer of the wish has poured the draught of tranquillity into the goblet of joy, and the portals of hope have been opened wide to the face of success, and the bud of expectation has bloomed in the bed of happy tidings.’
Kalílah said, ‘Notwithstanding that thou hast deviated from the path of generous conduct, and hast overthrown the pedestal of magnanimity with the axe of perfidy, thou still expectest to be free from anxieties, and hopest that thy time will pass in safety and happiness.
Damnah said, ‘It is not that I was unaware of the shame of perfidious conduct, or the retributive consequences of deceit and fraud, or that the villany of slander and the odiousness of selfish machinations was concealed from me. But the love of place and the greediness of wealth, and the irresistible influence of envy incited me to such conduct, and as things are now situated, I know no remedy for this business, nor am I able to devise any cure for it.
The leopard, having heard this segment of their discourse, and having learned the true state of the case, went to the Lion’s mother and said, ‘I will communicate a secret on condition that the queen will be pleased to promise that without urgent cause she will not suffer it to be disclosed.’ Then after many oaths and promises and injunctions [to secresy,] he fully recounted all that had passed between Kalílah and Damnah, and minutely repeated the reproaches of Kalílah and Damnah’s confession. The Lion’s mother was astonished at the details of this adventure, and next day came, according to her usual custom, to see the Lion. She found him excessively sad and pensive, and inquired saying, ‘O son! what is the cause of thy trouble and perturbation?
The Lion said, ‘The slaughter of Shanzabah and the remembrance of his qualities and excellent gifts, is the sole cause of my grief, and however much I try, the recollection of him will not depart from my mind nor will my heart forget his memory.
As often as deliberation is held on affairs of state, and I feel the want of an attached well-wisher and kind counsellor, and a faithful friend, and a minister on whom I can rely, the phantom of Shanzabah comes before me and says,
The mother of the Lion said, ‘In aiding the light of certainty to overpower the gloom of doubt and conjecture there is no evidence like the testimony of a pure heart, and the king’s language leads one to understand that his heart bears witness to the innocence of Shanzabah, and assuredly since he was not put to death on lucid evidence and convincing testimony, and since the interested informer, under the form of advice, set forth his condition in a way opposite to the truth; hence every moment fresh regret springs up and unbounded remorse is occasioned, and if what they conveyed to the king had been pondered over and the courser of ire had been curbed with the bridle of patience, and thou hadst removed the darkness of that doubt with the light of clear intellect, at this moment198 thou wouldest not have fallen into the snare of repentance nor wouldest thou have placed the volume of gladness and cheerfulness upon the shelf of non-existence.
The Lion said, ‘O mother! as thou hast said, in this affair my passion got the better of my reason, and the fire of wrath burned up the foundation of mildness, and now there is no remedy for a matter which is included in the category of impossibilities, save to waive the thought of it. That, however, may be regarded as the worst of states in which my subjects have made me the target of the arrow of reproach, and have cast upon my name the lot198a of unfaithfulness and cruelty, and however diligently I strive to bring home to the Ox a plain case of treason, and to prove against him the commission of a crime, in order that I may be absolved by others for slaying him, and may remove myself from the opprobrious remarks of those who know me and the sarcasms of strangers, it is no wise attainable or assured to me. The unfortunate Shanzabah had both a clear mind and pleasing manners, and with all these qualities it is not possible to charge him with what envy slanderously imputes to him, and such a person cannot be of the class that foul desires or vain longings should find a lodgment in his brain, so that he could have revolved my death or thought of warring with me. And, moreover, with regard to him, there has been no neglect of various kind offices or forms of favor, which might have become a link to hostility and aversion and the means of enmity and contention; and my wish is to use extreme efforts in investigating this matter, and to conduct the inquiry into these reports to the very limits of excess, and though this regret is unavailing, and that misfortune will not find a cure by this suit, still it may be that my mind may be consoled by it and the mischievous slanderer may be chastised, and my excuse may be admitted by men.199 And if thou hast known anything on this or heard any tidings, favor me with the information and advice.’ The Lion’s mother said,
I have heard a thing, but the disclosure of it is not admissible, and I have discovered a delicate matter, but to reveal it is not allowable. For certain of thy ministers have charged me to conceal it, and have been urgent with me beyond measure to hide it, ‘The hearts of the noble are the sepulchres of secrets.’
And the king knows that to publish a secret is utterly wrong, and to reveal what men would hide is inexpressibly mischievous; and were it not that the wise have enjoined us to avoid that quality, I would have detailed the whole, and would have swept away the dust of grief from the court of the heart of my beloved and fortunate son?’ The Lion said, ‘The glosses of the wise and the sayings of philosophers, are numerous. If one party of them have been commanded to abstain from disclosing secrets they had in view, the welfare and safety of the speaker and others, too, have enjoined the revelation of them for the public advantage, where the common weal may be conceived to be therein. And if any one has unjustly aimed at the life of one of the faithful, and confides this secret to another, and imparts it to him with great and strict oaths, and displays excessive earnestness in enjoining its concealment, and that confidant—for the preservation of the life of that Muslim,—reveals the secret and acquaints the person [whose life is in danger] with that information, in order that he may look to his affairs; he will, undoubtedly, not be censurable by the law, nor will he be exposed to the rebuke of God; and to keep back a secret in circumstances like these, shews an agreement with the base, and it is possible that the conveyer of this intelligence, by disclosing this secret desired to clear himself199a and make over the care of it to the surety of thy keeping, or he may have been afraid of me, and made use of thee as the medium of communication. I hope that thou wilt acquaint me with it and act as befits thy counsel and affection.
The mother of the lion said, ‘This intimation which thou hast given is worthy of the highest praise, and the purport of what thou hast set forth is worthy of much commendation; but the disclosure of secrets has two palpable and absolute faults. The first of these is, the enmity of that person who, in reliance on another, has made him the confidant of his secrets: the second is, the suspicion of others; for when a person has become notorious for rending veils and revealing the secrets of men, after that no one will impart anything to him, nor account him fit to be a confidant: he becomes both banished from the eyes of his friends, and overtaken, too, by the gibes of his enemies.
And I have seen in the sayings of the wise that, ‘He whose secret does not slumber, his mischief will not slumber,’—whoever does not conceal, in the casket of non-existence, the gem of his secret, that secret will assuredly set up a flag against his life. And it has become proverbial, that whoever lets his secret go out of his hands, gives his head in exchange for it.
But perhaps thou hast not heard the story of that Equerry who ventured to tell the king’s secret, and in the end gave up his head for it,’ The Lion said, ‘How was that?’
The lioness said, ‘In times gone by there was a king, by the ornament of whose justice the throne of empire was adorned and ennobled, and the splendor of whose unstinted bounties shone over all the provinces of his realm.
One day he had gone out to hunt, and at a time when the hunting-ground200 was close at hand, and every one was engaged in conducting the business which belonged to his post, he said to his Equerry, ‘I wish to race my horse with thine, for I have for a long time desired to know whether the speed of this black, on which I am mounted, is greater than that of the pie-bald which thou art riding.’ The Equerry, in accordance with the command of his prince, began to put his horse to its speed, and the king gave the rein to his fleet courser. As soon as they had got to a distance from the chase, the king pressed down his stirrups and reined in his horse, and said, ‘O Equerry! my intention in coming this distance, is, that at this moment a thing has entered my mind, and an anxiety has overpowered my heart, and of all the special attendants of our presence, no one is fit to be the confidant of this secret, wherefore I wished to retire to this privacy, and—in such way that none should suspect—tell this secret to thee.’ The Equerry made the obeisance due, and said,
Although this despicable atom perceives not himself to be meet for this, but as the brilliancy of the hue of the royal favor has condescended to bestow on me the shade of fortune, I hope that the morning zephyr, which is the confidant of the secrets of the truths of spring, will not scent a portion of the fragrance of this parterre; and the heart, notwithstanding that it is the treasury of this coin, will not be able to advance to the limits of this intelligence.
The King commended him, and said, ‘I am exceedingly in dread of my brother, and I have this day read, from the page of his movements, the writing of injurious designs,201 and I have clearly observed that he has girt up the loins of malice for my destruction, and I have determined201a that, before he can do mischief, I will remove the stone of his existence from my road, and clear the garden of the realm from the affliction of his thorn.
Thou must keep a constant watch on his actions, and perform all that vigilance requires for my safeguard and protection.’ The Equerry bowed, and having taken upon himself the business of guarding and concealing the matter, confirmed this by many assurances, and he had as yet not reached his place, when he inscribed the writing of faithlessness on the volume of his transactions, and turning aside from the path of loyalty and confidence, set his foot in the wilderness of perfidy and ingratitude.
The Equerry, having sought an opportunity, threw himself at the feet of the sulṭán’s brother, and exposed to his gaze the story in the way that he had heard it. The king’s brother received this favor from him with prompt payment, and with many promises and innumerable gifts, bestowed on him advancements, and, by judicious counsel, secured himself from injury from his brother. In a short time, as is the wonted vicissitude of fortune and the uncertainty of position, the spring of the fortunes of that brother to the king changed to the autumn of ruin, and the bud of his prosperity on the plant of his life shed its leaves.
And when the royal cushion and imperial throne was emptied of the adornment of the regal splendour of the elder brother, the younger set his foot on the step of the throne of sovereignty, and exalted the crown of royalty by placing it on the head of success.
The first order that passed the lips of the king, and the earliest mandate for the delivery of which the imperial signal was given, was for the death of that Equerry. The unfortunate wretch loosed the tongue of supplication, saying,
What is my crime save that of affection and loyalty to thee?’
The king pronounced this fiat, ‘The worst of crimes is to divulge secrets, and that crime has been committed by thee, and after that thou hast failed to keep the secret of my brother, who selected thee for his confidant from all his attendants, what reliance can I have in thee?
However much the Equerry bemoaned himself, it was unavailing, and he was overtaken by the regal chastisement, and forfeited his head for the betrayal of the secret.202
And the moral for the king to draw from the invention of this story is, that the divulging secrets has a bad result, and to disclose men’s secret matters yields not the fruit of happiness.’ The Lion said, ‘Kind mother! he who betrays his own secret, intends that it should go abroad, otherwise he ought to be his own confidant; and after he has made known to another what was hidden in his mind, he should not be hurt if that other should disclose it to a third; for when one cannot draw one’s own load, it is no wonder if another also cannot support the burthen.
And, moreover, when a person by disclosing a secret makes known what it is right should be known; in that case, though they may account the disclosure a fault, still the revealing what ought to be known may serve to cover that fault. I trust that thou wilt oblige me by stating what it is right to state and thus remove the load of grief from my heart; and if thou canst not tell it openly, thou wilt let me understand its nature by hints, and though thou wilt not detail it in plain language, thou wilt at least not withhold it from me by signs.’ The lion’s mother replied, ‘On condition that thou wilt bring to punishment that evil-doer who has stirred up the dust of this mischief, and that thou wilt conceal the beauty of forgiveness from his audacious eye, which is blinded to the path of truthfulness and rectitude. And although the learned in the faith and those versed in the knowledge of the true God, have used the strongest expressions as to the excellence of mercy and the pre-eminence of beneficence, and have stimulated and urged men to the adoption of that habit, still, in the case of crimes whose effect may extend to the mischief of the world, and the detriment of which may be diffused through the natures of mankind, punishment is better than mercy. And in requital of this offence—the injury of which has fallen on the king’s mind, and has stained the skirt of his purity and good faith with the defilement of perfidy and treachery—should no vengeance be taken, it would serve to embolden other incendiaries, and the pretence202a of the tyrannical would be confirmed, and everyone would regard it as a license to be relied on, and a pattern on which dependence could be placed for cruelty and wicked acts. Wherefore, in this place, pardon and connivance must not be allowed scope and in accordance with the irrefragable mandate, ‘And in this law of retaliation ye have life,’202b the remedy must be regarded as one of things requisite.
The drift of this preamble is that the perfidious Damnah, who persuaded the king of the world to this deed, is a sycophant and a slanderer, and wicked, and a villain.’ The Lion said, ‘I understand; thou must return, in order that I may deliberate on his punishment.’ The lioness returned to her own abode, and the Lion, after long deliberation, gave command to summon his army; and having sent for his nobles and Pillars of the state, and ministers, and chief officers into his presence, besought the attendance of his mother, and after the assembling of all the nobles and people, delivered his royal order, so that they brought Damnah to the foot of the imperial throne, and the king, turning his back upon him, plunged into a long reverie. Damnah looked round, and found the door of calamity open, and the way of escape closed. He turned to one of the king’s intimates, and said softly to him, ‘What is the cause of this assemblage, and what has happened, that the king has fallen into meditation and reflection?’ The lion’s mother overheard, and said aloud, ‘It is thy life on which the king deliberates, and since thy treason has become known and the villany of thy harmful acts manifest, and the falsehood which thou didst utter in relation to his attached friend, is patent,204 and the curtain has been removed from the face of thy machinations and artifices; it is not fit that the king should leave thee one instant alive, or keep such a manifester of depravity in the expanse of ‘Existence, which is the chief good.’ Damnah said, ‘The wise of past ages have left no particle of wisdom unsaid, and, for the convenience of those to come after them, have prepared clear ways, and one of their sagacious sayings is this, that whoever is unceasingly zealous in the service of the king, quickly reaches the rank of admission to his favour, and whoever has become the intimate of the sulṭán, all the friends and foes of the monarch become his enemies; the friends, through envy of his post and dignity; and the foes, by reason of his advising the king sincerely in matters of state and religion.
And those who are intimate are in great peril, and hence it is that men of true piety have set their backs against the wall of security and rest, and have turned their faces from the fleeting, faithless, untrustworthy world, and have chosen the worship of the Creator in preference to the service of the creature, for with the glorious Lord204a neither error nor neglect are admissible, nor are cruelty or tyranny allowed. To requite good with evil and to recompence obedience with punishment, is what cannot occur, and there can be no swerving from the path of justice in the commands of the king of kings.
In general the actions of creatures, in contrast to the character of the Creator, are stained with a variety of contradictions and inconsistencies, and in deviation from an exact observance of what is due, men at one time bestow on offenders deserving of chastisement, the reward meet for the conduct of friends; and, at another time, visit upright councillors, who deserve encouragement, with the punishment which befits the sins of traitors. For vain desires have the mastery over their actions, and error is evident in what they do. In their words they display self-interest, and in their deeds their hypo-crisy is palpable. Good and evil are to them alike, and gain and loss in their sight are equal. One man may hand over to the treasurer of the king all the treasures upon earth’s surface, and he will not feel a grain of gratitude towards him, but will exalt the head of another who abuses him to the pinnacle of honor.
I ought not, from the first, to have hovered round the royal service, nor to have stepped out of the cell of retirement, and beyond the corner of privacy, nor to have accepted the duty of attendance on the king, which resembles consuming fire; for whoever does not appreciate freedom from care, and prefers the service of the creature to that of the Creator, meets with what befell the solitary Devotee.’ The lioness asked, ‘How was that?’
Damnah said, ‘They have related that a Devotee had renounced the concerns of the world and had made choice of the corner of retirement; and satisfied the requirements of food and raiment with barley-bread and coarse woollen garments.205a
The rumour of the devotion and upright character of that saintly man spread in a short time through the districts and environs of that country, and people began to come from far and near for the purpose of securing good-fortune and a blessing: and when they beheld the effect of the luminousness of divine worship clear and evident upon his bright forehead, waxing warmer in the matters of faith, they displayed still greater zeal. Now in that country there was a king, just and liberal, and the friend of darveshes; who used to give to the pursuit of divine favor precedence over compliance with those desires that affect a king, and who imitated nothing but the character of prophets and the morals of holy men.
When the tidings of the devout hermit reached him, he put in practice the wise saying, ‘Happy is the prince and happy the faḳír,’ and waited on the saintly man, and having besought the aid of his blessed spirit, requested some piece of advice which might prove useful to kings. The pious recluse said, ‘O king! God has two pavilions, one transitory, which they call the world, and the other enduring, which they call the life to come. Magnanimity requires that thou shouldest not rest satisfied with this transitory abode, but transfer thy views to the empire of the enduring world.
The king said, ‘By what plan can that kingdom be subjugated?’ The Devotee replied, ‘By aiding the oppressed and attending to the complaints of the destitute; and every king who desires repose hereafter must labour for the ease of his subjects.
When the recluse had finished his advice, and had filled the treasury of the king’s heart with the jewels of admonition, the counsels and exhortation of the pure-minded and saintly man made an impression on the king, and he laid the hand of discipleship on the skirt of his spirit, and was continuously in the habit of presenting himself in his company, and by the blessing of obedience to his persuasive words, turned away his head from following lust and vanity. One day the king was waiting on the darvesh, and they were discoursing on every subject, when suddenly a party of petitioners for justice raised their clamours and outcries207a to the etherial ball. The Devotee called them to him and inquired into the case of each, separately, and instructed his highness the king, in the orders fit and proper for each of their suits. The king was excessively grateful for this, and besought that he might occasionally hold a court of requests under his fortunate superior tendence. The holy man, in order that the suits of the distressed might be speedily and satisfactory settled, and that he himself, by directing these matters, might obtain the advantage of an eternal recompense, consented; and in any affair, as the occasion required, the recluse delivered his decree, and the king, with willingness and eagerness, gave heed to him, until things eame to that pass that most of the affairs of that realm were united to the skirt of the management of that lofty and saintly man, and he was daily more and more employed in the affairs of the state and of the revenue. The bewitching love of place deposited its furniture in the environs207b of the saint’s heart, and made a breach in his religious duties and seasons of prayer, and the desire of pomp and state having raised the head of the darvesh from the pillow of repose, made him aim at the diadem of pride.
The world is a deceitful woman, which has brought many a lion-like man under the noose of her love, and a perfidious dame207c that has thrown many famous warriors like the hero Rustam, into the pit of calamity.
And when the recluse had tasted, in place of the brackish water of abstinence, the pleasant flavour of sensual desire and the delicious sharbat of worldly lust, the delight of worshipping God was effaced from his mind, and he inserted in his ear the ring of ‘Love of the world is the head of all sin.’
The king too, when he saw that the abilities of the Devotee, and that his counsels were beneficial to the state, at once placed the reins of full power in the hand of his able management. Before, the darvesh had to take thought for bread; now he had the cares of the world upon him, and he exchanged his former anxiety how to procure a blanket, for the scheme of subjugating an empire.
One day a darvesh, who, from time to time, used to come into the presence of the recluse, and used to pass whole nights with him in prayer and supplication, paid a visit of devotion to him, and beheld his state and circumstances. The flame of regret was kindled in the area of his heart.
When the night had come, and the hum of men was for the most part ushed, he said to the recluse, ‘O Shekh! what is this state of things that I behold, and the change of condition that I observe?
However much the holy man endeavoured to excuse himself, he was unable to utter a word which could completely stand the test of the touchstone of wisdom.209 ‘These speeches,’ said his guest, ‘are mere sensual pretexts. The purport of these prolix orations, and the pith of the whole discourse is that the mind of your Holiness is bent upon worldly things, and that your exalted spirit is in bondage to ambition and avarice.
Come and shake the skirt of thy solitary devotions free from the dust of rival pursuits, and draw the head of retirement under the collar of reliance on God, and bring not to the palate of desire the envenomed dainties of the world.
The recluse answered, ‘O kind friend! from discourse with my fellow-creatures and intercourse with mankind, so great an alteration has not found its way into my condition; and, in my heart, I am mindful of that very thing thou talkest of.’ The guest rejoined, ‘Thou hast now lost the sense of perception, because sensual inclinations have veiled thy sight, and when thou comest to thy senses, repentance will be unavailing.
And thy case is like that of the blind man, who mistook a snake for the thong of a whip, and hence fell into the whirlpool of destruction.’ The recluse inquired, ‘How was that?’
He that had come from the journey said, ‘Once on a time a blind man, and one that saw, halted at a place in some wild tract of country. When the time of their starting in the grey of the morning209b arrived, they were about to set out. The blind man was searching for his whip, and as it chanced that a snake lay there frozen by the cold, he imagined that it was his whip and took it up. When he touched it with his hand he found it softer and nicer than his whip, at which he was pleased, and mounted his horse, and forgot the whip he had lost. However, when the day had dawned, his companion, who could see, looked and saw a snake in the hand of the blind man. Hereupon he shouted out, ‘Comrade! what thou tookest for a whip is a poisonous snake. Fling it away before it makes a wound on thy hand.’ The blind man fancied that his companion coveted the whip, and replied, ‘O friend!
I lost my whip and God has given me a better one. Thou too, if fortune befriend thee, will find a nice whip. But I am not one of those who would allow my whip to be wheedled out of my hand by imaginary tales.’ He that could see laughed and said, ‘O brother! my duty as thy companion demands that I should acquaint thee with this danger. Listen to what I say, and throw down that snake.’ The blind man frowned and said,
Thou hast taken a longing for my whip and thou pressest me beyond all bounds to throw it away, in the greedy hope that when I throw it down, thou mayest pick it up. Do not indulge a vain idea, and give up a desire which is nought, for this is a whip which has come into my hands from the unseen world.
However much the man that could see urged his point, and confirmed what he said by oaths loud and strong, it was of no use whatever, and the blind man gave no heed to him. So when the air became warm and the snake’s body got rid of its chill, it wound itself back, and in its progress210 wounded the blind man in the hand and killed him.
And I have adduced this story that thou too may not trust in the world, nor be fascinated by its appearance, which is painted like the body of a snake; nor be fond of its softness and delicacy, for its wound is deadly and its poison fatal.
The recluse having listened to this discourse, called to mind the times of his solitude and abstraction from the world, and beheld the stain of worldly interests, which had not suffered the skirt of his heart to remain in its original purity. He felt that what his friend had said was out of pure kindness and friendship. Thus he began to let fall the tears of repentance from his eyes, and to heave burning sighs from his breast, which was consumed by the fire of regret.
All night long, like a lighted taper, he wept, while his heart was consuming; and, like a moth longing for the flame, he fluttered in eager desire after the divine excellence;211b until the time when the white-robed votary of the true morn211c spread the prayer-carpet of the sun before the shrine, ‘And when the morn breathed forth,’ and the black-appareled ascetic of the night lodged itself in the private closet of ‘When the night draws in.’
Again men pressed in crowds to the cell of the recluse, and the gales of pride beginning to blow, gave the corn of his nightly repentance to the wind of indifference.
In short, the recluse, having taken up the affairs of the state, deposed the nobles and ministers from their offices, and began, too, to indulge in a deviation from the path of equity in the adjudication of matters. One day he gave orders to put to death one of the people, whose death was not permitted by the law, and after the punishment was over, he turned in quest of a remedy and amends. The heirs of the man that had been executed demanded justice of the king against the recluse. The nature of the complaint was made known, and their case was referred to the tribunal of the law. The decree of the judge was forthwith issued to the effect that, by way of retaliation, they should put the recluse to death, and although he got persons to intercede for him, and promised money and valuables, he failed of his object, and, as a disastrous consequence of sacrificing the worship of the Creator for the service of the creature, he was overtaken in the whirlpool of destruction. Thus he lost212 the pleasures of the world and failed to gain the happiness of the world to come.
And I have framed this story to show that as I, too, turned away my face from the shrine of God’s worship, and hurried to the imperial court, and withdrew my head from the line of obedience to the All-Provider, and placed it on the threshold of the prince’s service,
When Damnah had finished this discourse, the attendants of the royal throne were astonished at his eloquence, and the Lion, with his head bent, as before, in meditation, could not think how to enter upon the affair or how to reply to Damnah. A lynx who, of all the courtiers, was honored with the nearest access to the king, when he observed the amazement of those who were present in the assembly, turned his face to Damnah and said, ‘All these reproaches that thou hast heaped on the service of kings, whose head, reaching to the polar star, is crowned with the diadem, ‘A just king is God’s shadow upon earth,’ befit thee not.212a But hast thou not heard that a single hour of a king’s life which is passed in the dispensation of justice and in taking care of his people, is taken to be an equivalent for sixty years of piety and devotion; and many of the worshipers212b at the shrine of devotion and the priestly office, and of the crowned heads of the kingdom of spiritual enlightenment and miraculous gifts, have voluntarily chosen the service of kings, according to the saying, ‘The service of kings is half the road [to heaven]’ with a view to assisting the oppressed and lightening the burthens of the distressed: and among the number of such cases, the story of the Saint of radiant mind, testifies to the justice of this matter.’ Damnah asked, ‘How was that?’
The lynx said, ‘They have related that in a city of Fárs there was a venerable old man who had carried off the reed of superiority from the horsemen of the circus of sanctity,212c while the peak of his crown of abnegation of worldly pleasures touched the summit of the celestial sphere.
They used to call him the Saint of radiant mind. The echoing rumour of his miraculous gifts pervaded the provinces of Rúm and the countries of the west, and the hubbub213a of his séances reached the inhabitants of Egypt and Syria and Arabia Petræa and Felix. The wise men of ’Iráḳ, as well as the refined of Khurásán, placed their heads on the line of attachment to him; and the pious people of Turkistán, as well as those transported with divine love in Hindústán, laid the hands of sincerity on the skirt of discipleship to him. One day a darvesh from Transoxiana, resolved on going as a pilgrim to the holy shrine of that Saint, and, with many toils, conveyed himself from the environs of Samarḳand to the capital of Fárs: and truly until one has wounded the foot of search in the thorny brake of trouble, the hand of attainment will not reach the collar of the rose of desire.
The darvesh who had thus traveled, after crossing the waste of despond,213b alighted at the K’abah of peace and safety, and having made the dust of the threshold of the Saint a kissing-place for the lips of respect, put in motion the knocker of eagerness. The attendant of the monastery, after inquiring into his case and informing himself of the circumstances of his fatiguing journey, pronounced these words, ‘O darvesh! rest a little, for his highness the shekh has gone to wait on the reigning monarch, and the hour for his return is by-and-bye.’ When the darvesh heard talk of waiting on the king, he exclaimed, ‘Fie on the toilsome journey and the wasting of my time! A shekh who goes to wait on a king and finds pleasure in visiting and discoursing with him, what can he do to aid me? or how point out to me the right way?
He then came forth from the monastery, and took his way to the bázár, and through the impurity of his deceitful heart, which had not been tempered in the furnace of austerity, he impressed on the coin of the shekh’s career the stamp of short measure; and ignorant of his true condition, gave vent to unreasonable censures.
Suddenly the police-magistrate of the city caught sight of him, and it happened that a thief, who resembled him in appearance, had, on the previous night, escaped from prison, and the king had severely reprimanded the magistrate and the watch, and had given the strictest injunctions to catch the thief and to cut off his hands. The magistrate saw the darvesh, and imagining him to be the runaway thief, had him straightway conveyed to the place of punishment. In vain the darvesh showed his safe-conduct214 and gave a true account of himself, he gained nothing thereby, and there was nothing at hand for him but to have his hand214a cut off. At the instant that the pitiless executioner had placed a sharp knife on the hand of the darvesh, and was about to sever it, there arose the shouts of the retinue of the Saint of radiant mind, as they called out to clear the way; and the shekh with a grand cavalcade,214b arrived where that crowd was assembled, and having inquired into the circumstances, was informed of the position in which the darvesh was placed. He told the magistrate, ‘This is one of the darveshes belonging to my place, and the suspicion thrown upon him is contrary to the facts—release him.’ The magistrate kissed the shekh’s horse’s hoof, and expressed himself under a vital obligation; he then apologized to the darvesh and went about his business. The poor darvesh finding himself set free from the snare of destruction and from the merciless hands of the executioner, proceeded with the shekh’s retinue as one of his attendants, and as they were going, the shekh laid his hand on the shoulder of the darvesh and whispered to him, ‘Brother! to forswear fellowship with darveshes is not right, for did we not wait upon the king, ill-used persons like thyself would find no escape from the hands of their oppressors.’ The darvesh perceived that his repudiation of the shekh had sprung from ignorance and folly, and that whatever is done by the thoroughly righteous is sure not to be wrong; because the intentions of a perfect saint melt into unison with those of God himself, wherefore not a single action will spring from him which will not be in accordance with the divine will, nor will anything he does, though apparently unreasonable and improper, be in reality unadvisable.
And the moral of this story is that eminently holy men have voluntarily taken upon themselves the service of kings and have thought it no harm to frequent royal courts.
Damnah said, ‘With regard to what thou hast said, that the excellent have sought eminence in the service of kings, it is true they have done so, but with a view to an advantage of the highest consequence, and they have not entered upon this measure without divine inspiration, nor have they suffered the smallest worldly or carnal motive to blend itself therewith; and whoever has such a bent as this, whatever he may do or say, none may be so bold as to blame him; but when will the like of us reach this dignity? or how can we justify our pretension to a rank so high? And as to what thou hast further said, that a king is the shadow of God, I admit that too; but it is the temper of true kings to make their actions run parallel to the right way and keep them far removed from the path of wrong; not to patronise one for a temporary selfish motive, and, then, without just occasion, order him to be punished: and the most praiseworthy of all royal qualities is to hold dear those of their servants who exhibit commendable dispositions, and to degrade their faithless and perfidious ministers.
The lioness said, ‘What thou sayest is true, but thy case appears the very opposite of this, since the collective voice of this assembly pronounces that Shanzabah was a worthy minister of the king, and of an amiable temper, and the common report is, that the harvest of his promise was consumed by the fire of thy calumny, and that the pedestal of the king’s faith was overturned by the disastrous influence of thy mischievous meddling.
Damnah said, ‘It is not concealed from the irradiated mind of the king, and all who are present know, that between me and the ox none of the materials of contention and enmity existed, how then can hostility as anciently entertained by us, be thought of? And he too, although he had the power to attack me, and the opportunity of injuring me, and strength to get rid of me, nevertheless observed towards me only the path of kindness and bene-volence; and I too was not contemptible and unimportant in the king’s sight, that I should exert myself to get rid of the ox through envy and hatred, but I gave the king a piece of advice and disinterestedly conveyed to his ears a speech that I had heard and the traces of which I had observed; and it was my duty to be grateful for the king’s kindness, and to exhibit with truthfulness the apparent treachery and dangerous intentions of the ox; and as to what I said, the king too, himself, made investigation, and discovered that which verified my words and confirmed the charge I brought, and, at the call of his own judgment, carried out the measure; and now there are many persons, who were in league with Shanzabah, and partners of his perfidy and hostile intentions, who are afraid of me since I have adopted the habit of telling the truth. It is a true and just saying, that ‘Truth is bitter.’
And, assuredly, a party of hypocrites will exert themselves to get me put to death, and I did not suspect that the recompense of my advice and the result of my service would be this, that my continuing to live should be a cause of anxiety and disturbance to the king.’ When Damnah had spoken thus far and the day had waned, the Lion said, ‘He must be delivered over to the judges, in order that they may inquire into his case, since in penal sentences and judicial proceedings, without adducing clear evidence and conviction on certain proof,
Damnah said, ‘What judge is more righteous than the reason of the prince, and what magistrate more equitable than the fair justice of the fortunate king? and, praise be to God! the luminous mind of the sulṭán is a clear mirror, or rather a world-displaying goblet, and the condition of every one of his attendants is therein clearly displayed.
And I know of a certainty that in removing the veil of doubt, and undoing the wimple of uncertainty and surmise, nought equals the sagacity of the king and his discernment, and, assuredly, when the mirror of his command is purified from the rust of self-interest and bias, I am convinced that if proper investigation is made my immunity217a will in all respects be established, and the honesty of my mind, like the dawning of the light of the real morning, will shine luminously to all.217b
The Lion said, ‘O Damnah! this matter shall be investigated to the utmost possible extent, and this affair shall be inquired into with all imagi-nable care.
Damnah said, ‘I am the more anxious for this excessive strictness217c by reason of my innocence, for I know that in this scrutiny my loyalty will be more abundantly evident, and had I been guilty in this affair, I should not have continued in attendance at the king’s court, nor sat tamely waiting for misfortune; but I should have repeated to myself the purport [of this injunction] ‘Go through the earth,’217d and have gone to another region.
The lioness said, ‘O Damnah! thy vehement desire for inquiry appears to be not devoid of mental alarm, but thou hopest by cunning to bring thyself out innocent; but to look for escape from this strait without thy case being investigated is an impossible thought and a vain desire.’ Damnah replied, ‘I have many enemies, and those who bear malice towards me are infinitely numerous. What I look for is that my case may be entrusted to a judge who may be clear from interested feelings and from suspicion, and who will truthfully convey to the royal ears whatever is said or heard; and that the king will refer this to his world-adorning judgment, which is the mirror of victory and triumph, so that I may not be put to death on a mere suspicion and that in the day of retribution no blame may accrue on account of that innocent blood.
The Lion said, ‘I have never in any command deviated from the path of justice, and, save in the way of equity, is is impossible for me to tread; and if this perfidious act has proceeded from thee, thou shalt meet the punishment which is thy due.
Damnah replied, ‘Why should I imagine such treason? and by what means suffer the desire of high affairs and the longing for offices of dignity to pass through my mind? and for my part I know well the king’s justice, and have surveyed the tokens of his righteous dealing, and I feel certain that he will not prevent my participating in his world-adorning justice, nor cut off from me the hope of the blessings of the due which he dispenses to all.
One of the by-standers said, ‘What Damnah says is not intended in honor of the king, but by these words he hopes to avert calamity from himself.’ Damnah rejoined, ‘Who is more tender of me than I myself am, and who my truer friend than myself? and whoever permits himself to remain in a difficulty, and takes no thought for his own preservation, what hope can others place in him?
Thy speech is a proof of a want of understanding and judgment, and of an abundance of ignorance and error; and think not that this circumstance will remain hid from the king’s sagacity, [not so!] but after due reflection he will distinguish between thy reproach and salutary advice, since his luminous mind can deliberate in a single night on the affairs of a whole life, and subdue vast armies by a thought.
The lynx said, ‘I am not so much astonished at thy former tricks and perfidiousness, as at thy declamation in thy present condition, and thy display of maxims, and quaint sayings, and saws.’ Damnah rejoined, ‘Aye! it is the place for admonition if it alights in the spot of acceptance, and it is the season for uttering maxims if they gain a hearing from the ear of understanding.’ The lioness said, ‘O traitor! art thou still in hopes of escaping by thy juggles and deceit?’ Damnah answered, ‘If one return evil for good, and think injury a just recompence for benefit, [I am, then, indeed, without hope]. Yet I, at least, have fully discharged my engagements as a servant, and have been faithful to my duty as a counsellor. The king well knows that no false accuser would dare to utter his calumnies before him, and if he think fit to deal cruelly with me, the infamy thereof will recoil on himself, and if he act precipitately with regard to me, and neglect the advantages of deliberation and the blessings of proof and patient investigation, he will repent in the end; as they have said,
And whoever deprives himself of the excellent quality of patience by acting precipitately, meets with what that woman met with, who, displaying overhaste in her proceedings, could not discriminate between her friend and the slave.’ The Lion, who was listening to what Damnah said, when he heard this shrewd remark, asked, ‘How was that?’
Damnah said, ‘They have related that in the city of Kashmír there was a merchant possessed of great wealth and opulence, and many servants, and a great establishment. He had a wife of moon-like face and musky ringlets, such that heaven’s eye had never beheld a luminary like her, nor had so fair a figure ever come into the hand of Time. Her cheek was bright and radiant like the day when lovers meet, and her tresses dark, and long as the day of separation.
And in close vicinity lived a painter, who, by his expertness, had acquired a world-wide notoriety,220 and was admired by all for his pictures. The souls of the painters of China wandered distracted in the desert of jealousy at the brush of his portraiture, and the heart of the artists of Cathay were bewildered in the waste of envy at the skill of his delineation.
In short there arose between him and the wife of the merchant a mutual attachment, and the painter began to feel a blind and uncontrollable love for that graceful form, and the monarch, Love, overcame the territory of his heart, the metropolis of the affections; and the forces of desire commenced their ravages over the seven regions of his body.
The visual organs of the young lover, like the heart of the pious, became watchful, and the eyes of his vigils, like April clouds, began to rain down tears.
The merchant’s wife, too, had beheld the youth and surrendered her heart to him, and had placed the volume of patience and forbearance in the niche of oblivion.
The attraction of love exerting its influence on both sides, they found the means of meeting without the intervention of a go-between, and the path of intercourse between them was clear from the dust of rivals. The woman said to her lover, ‘Thou art ever221 favoring me with thy presence and adorning and shedding light upon my humble dwelling, and no doubt delay takes place until thou callest out and castest a pebble. If by thy skill in painting—in which thou art the phœnix of the age and the leader of the time—thou wouldest take thought and paint something, and make a thing which might be a token between me and thee, it would not be unwise, and rather conformable to judicious counsel.’
The young artist replied, ‘I will make a mantle of two colors, which shall be white on one side, like a star shining in the water; and black on the other, like an Æthiop’s hair gleaming on the lobe of the ear of a fair beauty. When thou beholdest that signal, come out quickly.’ While they were making this agreement, a slave of that painter was standing behind the wall, and overheard them.
Several days passed and the mantle was finished and the visits agreed upon took place. One day the painter had gone out on important business, and stopped away late. The slave borrowed that mantle of the painter’s daughter, on pretence of studying the manner in which the colors were mixed, and having put it on, came to the house of the lady. She, without reflection, from the excessive transports of joy which she felt at her lover’s visit, did not distinguish between her paramour and his rival, nor observed the difference between her friend and this stranger.
The slave, by means of this robe obtained his wish; and after he had done with it, gave back the mantle. It happened that at the very same time, the painter returned, and having rent the garment of patience, from desire to behold his mistress, he threw the mantle over his shoulders and went towards the merchant’s house, and the lady running forth to him, again said, with many endearments, ‘Is it well with thee, my friend, that thou hast in this same instant come back again?’ The young man saw how matters stood, and having made some excuse for coming, returned forthwith, and finding out the whole affair, chastised the slave and his daughter severely, burnt the mantle, and gave up the connection with the lady: and if she had not acted precipitately, she would not have been contaminated by the foul embraces of the slave, nor have been deprived of the visits of her darling lover and the conversation of a friend dear to her as her life.
And I have brought forward this example that the king may perceive that he ought not to act precipitately with reference to me; and the real fact is, that I do not utter these words from fear of torture, and terror of his majesty; for although death is a sleep not to be coveted, and a rest little to be desired, nevertheless, come it will, and many mighty ones, driven to extremity at its hands, have learned that it is impossible for any one to evade the circle of annihilation and extinction. Whoever sets foot in the world of existence, must needs quaff the potion of death and clothe himself in the vestments of decay.
And had I a thousand lives, and knew that in expending them I should benefit the king, I would surrender them all in an instant, and regard that as equivalent to perfect happiness in both worlds.
But it is the bounden duty of the king to look to the end of this matter, for he cannot preserve his dominions without the swords [of his officers], and he must not assail the lives of his useful servants on a vain surmise.
And it is not possible to find at all times a servant who will show himself equal to the administration of affairs, nor to lay hands upon a minister worthy of one’s confidence and deserving of promotion.
When the lioness observed that the speeches of Damnah were honored by attention from the ear of acceptance, she was overcome with alarm lest the Lion should give his belief to these gold-washed, counterfeit coins, and specious truth-resembling pretences and insinuating falsehoods of his; and lest the grace of his language and oily talk should cause the Lion to neglect the investigation of this history. She, therefore, turned towards the Lion, and said, ‘Thy silence would indicate that what Damnah says is true, and what the rest say is false, and I did not think that thou, notwithstanding thy sagacity and acuteness and understanding and intellect, wouldest be deaf to the language of truth, and be deceived and shaken by vain and delusive prating.
She then rose in wrath and went to her own abode. The Lion commanded them to keep Damnah bound in prison, till the judges should investigate his case, and declare what was right to be done with him. The court of inquiry223 broke up, and the lioness came to the lion and said, ‘O son! I have long heard of the marvelous cleverness of Damnah, and now I know to demonstration that he is the wonder of the age and the phœnix of the time. How, I pray, could he utter all these false sentiments apparently so magnanimous, and how arrange those rare excuses and honeyed sayings? So fine are the extenuations which he chooses, that if the king should give him an opportunity to speak, he would, by a single word, extricate himself from this calamity; and, at the present moment, both the king and the army, in a body, would rejoice exceedingly at his being put to death, and, therefore, the best way is to relieve thy mind at once with regard to him, and not to give him opportunity to speak nor the chance of a reply.
The Lion said, ‘The business of those who surround monarchs is envy and variance, and the employment of the high officers of state, malevolence223a and strife. Day and night they pursue each other and search out one another’s merits and demerits, and whoever has most of the former, they assail him the more vehemently, and the deserving are the greatest objects of envy and malice; and they never feel jealous of one who has no merit, and Damnah is adorned with many accomplishments, and possesses my most intimate favour. It is possible that the envious have combined and wish to get rid of him by treachery.’ The lioness replied, ‘How can envy be carried so far as to cast one into the place of destruction?’224 The Lion answered, ‘Envy is a fire which, once kindled, burns up the green and the dry, and when carried to excess, it impels a man not to desire good even to himself, as was the case in the matter of those three envious persons.’ The lioness asked, ‘How was that?’
The Lion said, ‘They have related that three persons were fellow travelers, and having become companions, entered on their journey together. The oldest of them said to the other two, ‘Why have you left your city, and how? and what is the cause of your expatriating yourselves, so that ye have chosen the toil of travel in preference to the ease of residing with your neighbours?’ One of them said, ‘Because that in the town in which I dwelt, things occurred that I could not endure the sight of, and envy overpowered me, and I was continually consumed by the flame of jealousy. I, therefore, thought to myself that I would leave my home for a day or two, and thus, perchance, avoid the sight of what I did not wish to see.’ The other companion said, ‘I, too, was embarrassed with the same painful feeling, and have, therefore, chosen to leave my country.’ The oldest said, ‘Both of you are partners in suffering with me, and I too have set out for the desert, owing to the same indignant feeling.
On finding that all three were envious, with a feeling of pleasure at their homogeneousness, they set out. One day there lay a purse of gold in their road, and the three ran simultaneously to the spot and exclaimed, ‘Come! let us divide this gold, and returning hence to our own homes, pass some time pleasantly.’ Each, however, felt his envious passions excited, so that, being unwilling that the others should get a share, they remained mute. They neither had the courage to leave the gold lying in the road, nor could they endure to divide it with one another. They passed a whole day and night hungry and thirsty in the desert, and denying themselves food and sleep, quarreled together, without finding any solution of their strife.
The next morning, the king of that territory, who had come forth to hunt, passed, with a number of his retinue, by that spot, and beheld those three persons seated in the desert. On his inquiring into their circumstances, they stated the facts as they really were, and said, ‘We all three are endued with the quality of envy, and for this reason we have left our country and our homes, and wander in an unsettled state. Here, too, the same feeling has evinced itself, and has ended in our trouble and distress. We want a judge to issue his command for the division of this gold among us.
The king said, ‘Do you each set forth the nature of his own envious feeling, that I may perceive the extent of the deserts of each, and may in accordance therewith divide the gold among you!’ One said, ‘My envy is so great that I never wish to benefit any one, nor choose to be kind to any, lest that person should become happy or prosperous.’ The next said, ‘Thou wert born a good man and hast no spice of envy. The degree of my envy is such that I cannot bear to see any one do a benefit to another or bestow his property on him.’ The third said, ‘Both of you have no part in this matter, and your pretensions are vain. I, in fine, am such that I never wish any one to bestow a favour on me, or show kindness even to myself, judge then what my feelings are towards another!’225 The king bit the finger of astonishment with the tooth of reflection, and marveled at the words of these wretches, on the tablet of whose qualities was displayed the writing indicative of malignity, ‘Do they envy other men?’225a He said, ‘By your own words this gold is a forbidden thing for you, and each deserves a punishment suited to his crime. He who is unwilling that he himself should do good to others, his recompense is none other than that he should fail to participate in the happiness of a reward, and in both worlds be bankrupt and destitute. And as for him who cannot endure that any man should benefit another, the best course is to release him with all speed from the prison of existence, and to remove the weight of this suffering from the surface of his soul. And as for the third, who envies even himself, and who does not wish to have himself even benefited, he deserves to be punished by a variety of tortures and ignominious sufferings, and, suspended for a long period in the grasp of chastisement and reprobation, to taste the flavor of torment, till the time when the bird of his spirit is caught in the snare, ‘Say, the angel of death who is set over you [shall cause you to die].’226 He then commanded that they should let the first person go into the desert, naked from head to foot, and without food or provisions, and all that he had they took from him, the king saying,
And with respect to the second envious person, he gave orders for his decapitation with the pitiless scymitar, which having been done, they released him from the pangs of envy: while on the third they rubbed pitch, and left him in the sun, so that he perished after cruel and protracted sufferings. Thus the king conveyed the disgraceful envy of those three persons to its just recompense: and the perfectly wise have said,
There is no pain greater than that of envy, because the envious man is always in grief at the joy of others, and in travail at their delight.
And this story is for this purpose—that it may be shown that envy may be carried to such a length, that a man may not wish well even to himself, and hence we may infer how he will stand with reference to another; and I suspect that the tale about Damnah may have been set afloat by envious persons.’ The lioness said, ‘I have not observed in the ministers of this court the habit of envying, nor have I the slightest suspicion that any one of them is tainted with this blameable quality; and the probability is that the unanimous vote of all for his execution is with a view to the king’s advantage, and if not, these circumstances are not required to get rid of him.’ The Lion replied, ‘I entertain doubts in this matter, and in order that they may be removed I will not act, as regards Damnah, precipitately, lest it should turn out that I bring loss on myself in seeking the advantage of others, and, in pleasing the creature, anger the Creator. Until I have most narrowly scrutinised the affair, I shall not think it allowable for me to put him to death, since I have been compelled to endure all these regrets from acting with too great haste in the matter of Shanzabah. The right plan is not to sacrifice the meritorious and able on a mere suspicion, and not to carry out any mandate till the beauty of certainty shews its countenance from behind the curtain of doubt; nor transgress the purport of this saying, which has issued from the exalted mind, and sprung from the pure intellect of one of the greatest sages:
Here the dialogue between the Lion and his mother ended, and they departed to their respective couches. When, however, they had conveyed Damnah to prison, and had placed heavy fetters on his feet and neck, fraternal tenderness and friendly sympathy led Kalílah to go and see him. As soon as he entered the dungeon and his eyes fell on Damnah, he began to shower down the rain of his tears from the clouds of his eye, and said, ‘O brother! how can I behold thee in this calamity and trouble, and what pleasure can I henceforth feel in life?
Damnah, too, began to weep, and exclaimed,
And all this travail and affliction, and the grief of my prison and my heavy fetters is not so distressful to me as to be compelled to submit to part from thee and to be consumed in the fire of separation.
Kalílah replied, ‘O Damnah! since affairs have reached this point and matters have culminated in this, I might well address thee in severe language, for from the beginning of this adventure I foresaw it all, and used the most strenuous admonitions, but thou didst not give heed to them, but leant upon thy own weak judgment and erring counsel, and at the last the very thing has happened which I foretold:
And had I failed to advise thee at the commencement of this business and had chosen to be supine in dissuading thee, I should this day have been the partner of thy perfidy, and I could not have addressed to thee such language as I do. O careless one! did I not tell thee what the wise implied when they said, that ‘The slanderer dies before his predestined time?’ The meaning of this is, not the being cut off from life or the annihilation of the delights of existence, but that a grief arises which makes life hateful and makes death every moment wished for, as has happened to thee. Assuredly death is pleasanter than this life.
Damnah said, ‘O brother! thou didst ever speak the truth and fulfil all the duties of a monitor, but sensual desire and covetousness and ambition impaired my judgment, and deprived thy admonitions of their due weight in my mind; and although I knew that the mischief of this proceeding was infinite, and the danger of it unbounded, I nevertheless entered upon it with the utmost energy—like a sick man who is overpowered by the desire of eating—though he knows the injurious consequences, he heeds them not—and a person of this character, who cannot refrain from obeying his appetite, must submit to all the calamity and suffering which is sure to occur to him, and if he reproaches any one, it must be himself.
Kalílah replied, ‘He is a prudent man, who in the beginning of every affair casts his eyes to the conclusion, and before he plants the shrub considers its fruit, that he may not repent of the deed when it is done, nor regret the speech when it is spoken, since such repentance and such regrets yield nothing but exultation to one’s enemies and despondency to one’s friends.
Damnah responded, ‘O brother! to have no enemies is the characteristic of a mean spirit, and to live safe and secure is the condition of every mean wretch and simpleton. Wherever there is a man of high spirit, he cannot be quit of sharp troubles and vast dangers.
Kalílah answered, ‘Fleeting riches and uncertain office are not worth all this care and trouble.
Thou oughtest not to have cast the ray of thy regard on worldly wealth and station, and thou wouldest not have fallen into the pit of trouble and difficulty; nor shouldest thou have sown the plant of rancor and envy, and to-day thou wouldest not have gathered the fruit of calamity and disgrace.’
Damnah said, ‘I know that I have scattered the seeds of this woe, and whoever sows anything will assuredly reap the same.
And I have sown poisonous herbs and cannot therefore look for rose-comfits, and now the affair is beyond my control and my hand is unable to grasp it. The finger-tips of counsel cannot loose the knot of destiny, nor does the countenance of successful deliberation shew itself in the mirror of thought. I have erred wittingly, and sinned with my eyes open, and in spite of knowing that the royal gem was not worth the peril of the whirlpool of trouble.
Kalílah said, ‘Now in what manner hast thou devised thy release, and by what passage hast thou conceived a way to escape?’ Damnah replied,
It appears that the vessel of life will be submerged in this whirlpool of destruction, and that the sun of existence will set in the western region of annihilation and extinction. Yet will I in no wise give way to weakness, nor will I spare any devices or stratagems that can be made available for my release. But my grief is increased by the apprehension that thou mayest be suspected with me; and, owing to the companionship between us, which had reached the bounds of complete accord, thou too mayest fall into the whirlpool of destruction, and if—which God forbid!—they should inflict pain upon thee to make thee utter what thou knowest of my secrets, my distress will then be doubled. In one aspect there will be thy personal sufferings, and the shame that thou shouldest have fallen into trouble on my account: in another, no hope of escape will be left to me, inasmuch as the truth of thy word is known to all, and there can be no opposing truthful evidence from one like thee, who hast based thy conduct on sincerity and uprightness; and supposing this to be the case, we shall see one another again only at the day of resurrection, and we cannot hope to meet save at the time of the last judgment.’ Kalílah replied, ‘I have heard what thou hast said, and thou knowest that I cannot endure the torture, nor sustain the pangs of the rack and the agony of punishment; nor conceal what I know; nor, to flatter any one, can I speak that which is false and contrary to fact; and even before they put the question I shall state what has occurred. Thy advisable course is to confess thy crime and to avow what thou hast done, and thus, by penitence and contrition, save thyself from suffering in the final state. Since thou knowest of a certainty that thy end in the present case will be destruction; at least, let not the punishment of this world be combined with the disgrace and chastisement of the next; and if thou must endure the pangs of punishment in this transitory state, at least thou mayest avoid tasting the bitter waters of torment in the city of eternal existence.’ Damnah said, ‘I will consider of these matters,, and advise with thee on the course I may decide upon.’ Kalílah, pained and full of grief, retired, and indulging his heart in a variety of distresses and anguish, laid himself down on the bed of despondency and writhed through the night, and as morning rose, his spirit sank.
However, at the time that these words were exchanged by Damnah and Kalílah, a thief, who was confined in the same prison, and who lay sleeping near them, was awakened by their conversation, and having heard all that they said, kept it in mind, and preserved the recollection of it that he might make use of it when occasion offered.
The next day, when the golden-clawed lion of the sun put himself in motion in the azure-colored waste of the sky, and the dark-visaged black-scrolled jackal of the night was hidden in the corner of the prison of concealment;
Again the court of grievances was formed and embodied. The lioness renewed the disquisition as to Damnah, and said, ‘To leave tyrants alive is the same as killing the just, and to treat evil-disposed persons well, is like acting ill to the good.
And he who, although he has full power over him, suffers the profligate to live, or assists the oppressor, is the accomplice of their debauchery and injustice; and the threat ‘Whoso aids the tyrant, God will give that tyrant absolute power over him,’ comes to pass in his case.
The Lion enjoined the judges to use despatch in transacting the affair of Damnah, and to report daily what transpired as to his treason or the reverse. Wherefore the judges, and nobles, and notables, and ministers, and high and low, met in the court of the grandees and general assembly, and the representative of the ḳáẓí turned his face towards those present, and said, ‘The king displays the utmost urgency as to the inquiry into the affair of Damnah, and investigating that which is laid to his charge; and has given command that until the face of his affair is cleansed from the dust of doubt, the judges shall not occupy themselves with any other matter, and enjoins that the sentence which is passed with regard to him shall not be inconsistent with the requirements of justice, nor swerve from the path of right towards oppression or injustice. It behoves each of you to declare what he knows, for such declaration comprises three advantages of high importance. The first is that to aid the right, and to raise the banner of truth and justice is of great weight in the law of God, and of ineffable value in the code of courtesy and creed of magnanimity. The second is, that to destroy the foundation of injustice, and lay waste the basis of tyranny, and to rebuke the perfidious, is in accordance with the will of the Creator, and approved by mankind in general. The third is, that to escape from the deceitful and mischievous, and to obtain security from perfidious and wicked men, is absolute gain, and relief in which all partake.’ When the speech was ended, all those who were present kept silence, and from no quarter was any answer returned, for they had no certainty as to the affair of Damnah, and they did not wish to say anything on mere suspicion, lest a command should be issued upon what they affirmed, and blood should be spilled at their word, though they might deliver sentiments not in agreement with the facts. When Damnah observed this state of things, his heart was refreshed and rejoiced, like the garden of Iram by the breeze of spring. He contracted his features, however, like one in grief, and said, ‘O leaders of the faith and of the state! and O counsellors of the realm and nation! were I guilty, I should be glad to keep silence, but I am innocent, and no one can lay hands on him who is clear of guilt, and he is excusable if he exert himself in his own affair to the extent of his ability; and I desire that every one who is acquainted with aught that affects my case, will state it truthfully, and observe what is due to justice therein. For hereafter every speech will have its reward, and it behoves every one—whose word is equivalent to a command in setting forth the right, or in putting an individual to death—to deliver his testimony without admixture of suspicion or conjecture, and moreover with sincerity and firm conviction, and whoever on mere suspicion or doubt plunges me into destruction will meet with what befell that physician, who was destitute of science and experience.’ The judges inquired, ‘How was that?’
The peasants in Italy, and the Afghán mountaineers, wear a cloak of skins, the plain side of which they turn inwards in warm weather, and reverse it in winter, so as to have the warm fur next their bodies. This custom may have given rise to this most strange expression. For a note on wájhún, see M. Quatremère’s review of M. Chodzko’s Grammar, ‘Journal des Savants,’ October, 1853.
↩The literal translation of this impracticable line is: ‘The birds in the gardens had the horse-shoes in the fire, that it would be pleasant to be at the spit at the fire.’ With such impossible idioms has the hapless translator to deal. ‘To have the horse-shoes in the fire’ signifies ‘to be ready;’ and the Burhán-i Ḳát’i explains that in order to get a sort of magic influence over a person, it is a custom to write his name on a horse-shoe and put it in the fire, and it is supposed he and the shoe will become malleable together.
↩Keene has, ‘they saw a bright lump of quicksilver;’ but nai párah can mean nothing but ‘a piece of reed,’ or ‘cane.’ Párá, indeed, means ‘quicksilver,’ but it is a word of Sanscrit origin.
↩Here the editions have, by a mistake, murgh-í dígar for mardí. See note 1, above.
↩I have been obliged to omit the words az ágház-i kár, ‘from the commencement of the affair,’ which Keene joins with tawám gashtah, but which I should prefer to connect with tark gíríd.
↩Buráḳ was the winged animal, smaller than a mule and bigger than an ass, upon which Muḥammad performed his journey ‘by night, from the sacred temple of Makkah to the further temple of Jerusalem,’ and thence through the seven heavens to the presence of God. See Ḳu’rán, ch. xvii.; Sale p. 209; and Prideaux’s Life of Mahomet, p. 43.
↩Keene renders íshán-rá dá’íyah-i bázárgání shud—‘They had a claim upon a certain merchant.’ I think, however, that the words may bear the sense I have given to them, which would suit the general story better, for it is not likely they would have given up their claim, which they would more easily have realized with the aid of their newly-acquired funds.
↩Kásah-i chashm signifies, I imagine, ‘the socket of the eye,’ or is it used metaphorically? ‘the eye of the greedy, like a cup which can never be filled.’
↩ The MSS. differ here. Naḳdí sarah signifies current coin, opposed to nabahrah. One
MS. reads
In what manner? Does the án zar refer to his own share, and the chandán-i dígar to his partner’s? or had he some other rascality in view? or is it a mere careless unmeaning expression of the author? I incline to the latter opinion.
↩Keene renders this, ‘nor is any tale or allegory of vengeance within my reach,’ which makes but indifferent sense. He seems to have overlooked the very common meaning of naḳl, ‘migration’ which it obviously bears in this passage.
↩Ṣad waraḳ is also the name of a kind of rose.
↩Lit.: ‘From his wickedness and injuries.’
↩Lit.: ‘In quest of eating of fish.’
↩Ḳur’án, Fl. lxiv., 15, Mar, lxiv., 16; Sale, p. 411, 1. 2: ‘O true believers! verily of your wives and children you have an enemy; wherefore beware of them.’ I have translated the verse a little differently from Sale, whose note is, ‘For these are apt to distract a man from his duty, especially in time of distress; a married man caring for the things that are of this world, while the unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord.’ See also 1 Cor. vii, 25.
↩Dúd is, properly, ‘smoke,’ but signifies also ‘a sigh,’ for the Persians have a most forced but favourite simile, in which the sighing of the distressed is compared to smoke issuing from a chimney. In Keene’s translation this passage is a good specimen of the disadvantage of being too literal, ‘Till they brought smoke out of the family (or breath out of the body) of that unfinished man, raw business.’
↩Daur signifies ‘an age,’ ‘revolution of time,’ ‘the world,’ and also ‘the circulation of the cup,’ which in connection with mí khurad, supplies an equivoque.
↩Pák gauhar ‘purity of nature,’ but also ‘singleness of essence’ which is the meaning here.
↩Keene takes búí as the reading, and translates ‘After all, the flavour of venom will give out a smell from his gums.’ Should any one prefer this sense I have nothing to say against it.
↩According to Keene, ‘Reason, our guide, will connect me with rectitude.’
↩Keene translates, ‘as long as it is possible to close’ etc., and separates the two first verses in sense from the two following. They appear to me to be so connected as that the two former are the reason of the two latter.
↩Khawarnaḳ was a celebrated palace built by Sinimmár, the architect, at the command of N’umán-bin-Munẕir, 10th king of Ḥírat, for King Bahrám Gúr, in Babylonia; and is said to have been one of the wonders of the world. The stones of which it was composed assumed various tints at different hours of the day, and were all based on one stone in such wise that were that one to have been removed, all would have fallen in ruins. Dreading the betrayal of this keystone, or fearing lest Sinimmár should erect a palace, still more beautiful, for his enemies, N’umán commanded the architect to be hurled from the topmost tower.
↩Kai Káús, second king of the Kaianian or second dynasty of Persia, and son of Kai Kubád.
↩I read, with the MSS., míwah-i ḥaláwat ámízash for the ḥaláwat áwízash of the printed and lithographed editions.
↩Síb is ‘an apple,’ ásíb ‘calamity,’ and for the sake of the equivoque síb-i bí ásíb ‘the uninjurious’ or ‘wholesome’ ‘apple’ is a favourite phrase in Persian.
↩Lit., as Keene translates, ‘its colour grew red, and the whole face was lighted up in the garden.’
↩In plain English ‘you could gather the pear without paying for it, and it was one of nature’s sweetmeats.’ I take bí-dúd (literally ‘without smoke’) to refer to bí ḥarárat-i átish rasídah, ‘ripened without the heat of fire,’ which occurs twelve lines above.
↩ The Ṣúfís are a religious order, who lead a stricter and more contemplative life than
the common Darveshes. The word signifies, originally, ‘one clothed in wool and who refrains
from wearing silk.’ Or more probably it is a corruption of
Here is an equivoque impossible to follow in English, mihr signifying ‘the sun’ and also ‘love’ ‘affection.’
↩Lit.: ‘green,’ an epithet constantly given by Persians to the sky, however unsuitable it may appear to us.
↩Ab-i dandán, literally ‘water of the teeth.’ In the Dictionary we find ḥaríf-i áb ú dandán, ‘whatever is agreeable to one’s disposition.’
↩Here is another equivoque—nár signifies ‘fire’ in Arabic, and ‘a pomegranate’ in Persian. The seeds of this fruit are compared to rubies which have been placed in its red pulp as in the fire—to test them.
↩Ḳur’án, ch. xcv, 1; Sale p. 447, 1. 17: ‘By the fig and the olive; and by Mount Sinai and this territory of security; verily we created man of a most excellent fabric.’ Sale adds in a note, ‘God swears by these two fruits because of their great uses and virtues; for the fig is wholesome and of easy digestion, and physically good to carry off phlegm, etc.’
↩I conjecture the meaning to be that the fig tastes like opium and sugar, which, indeed in my judgment, it does. Keene translates, ‘and had composed a rare sweetness out of fragrant herbs and fine sugar.’
↩Ḳur’án, ch. lxxx. 28; Sale p. 435, 1. 32: ‘We pour down water by showers; afterwards we cleave the earth in clefts, and we cause corn to spring forth therein, and grapes, and clover, and the olive, and the palm, and gardens planted thick with trees, and fruits, and grass, for the use of yourselves and of your cattle.’
↩Ṭurfah signifies, according to the Dictionary, ‘anything new, agreeable, wonderful.’
↩In the game of Chaugán, the victor strikes the ball away from his antagonist. Hence, one who gets the mastery is said to carry off the ball, as we should say a man carries off the palm. Keene’s translation is here hardly intelligible—‘with a freshness of ringlets, in the form of its hair never was.’
↩I use ‘paternal’ in the sense of ‘with reference to a father,’ not in the common sense of fatherly towards children. The whole sentence, however, means no more than that the gardener had no family to care for.
↩This is surely a slander upon horticulturists. The care of flowers would dispose us, one would think, to gentle feelings, not to bearish ones—yet the first tiller of the ground was a fratricide.
↩In Persian, amber is styled kahrubá ‘the straw-attracter.’
↩Keene translates, ‘what is it that carries away vain persons? some vanity.’
↩If the man be reckoned at 40 lbs. weight, this stone would weigh 800 lbs. or about half a ton.
↩According to this passage, the man would be six or eight pounds, for a hawk would hardly weigh more than four pounds, and a lad of ten or twelve years old would weigh about seventy or eighty.
↩It is hardly possible to translate, concisely, the phrase lisán-u’l-ḥál, the meaning of which is, that a man’s condition—his circumstances, as it were—speak: thus, pallor and trembling tell of having witnessed something dreadful. It is opposed to lisán-i ḳál ‘actual words.’
↩Here again the two-fold meaning of tígh supplies an equivoque. It may mean ‘a sword’ as well as ‘ray,’ ‘sunbeam. So tígh kashídah would be ‘having drawn the sword.’
↩The reading of the printed editions appears to me quite incorrect. Instead of va aṭwár va áṯár-i dánish-i ṣuḥbat—which seems to me absolute nonsense—I read, from the MSS., va aṭwár-i-ṣuḥbat va áṯár-i dánish.
↩Lit.: ‘What can the enemy do to any one? that thou shouldst remember him!’ I read chih kirá for chih karí, which is to me unintelligible.
↩Tamassuk namúdan, a rare phrase.
↩Ḳur’án, ch. lix. 2, Sale p. 402, l. 13: ‘But the chastisement of God came upon them, from whence they did not expect; and he cast terror into their hearts. They pulled down their houses with their own hands, and the hands of the true believers. Wherefore take example from them, O ye who have eyes.!’ This refers to the Jews, who were expelled by Muḥammad from Madínah.
↩That is, ‘Subtle.’
↩Ḳur’án, Fl. lvi. 21; Mar. lvi. 23; Sale p. 394, l. 24: ‘These are they who shall approach near unto God, they shall dwell in gardens of delight; (there shall be many of the former religions, and few of the last.) Reposing on couches adorned with gold and precious stones, sitting opposite to one another thereon, youths, which shall continue in their bloom for ever, shall go round about to attend them with goblets and beakers, and a cup of flowing wine: their heads shall not ache by drinking the same, neither shall their reason be disturbed: and with fruits of the sort they shall choose, and the flesh of birds of the kind which they shall desire. And there shall accompany them fair damsels, having large black eyes, resembling pearls hidden in their shells, as a reward for that which they shall have wrought.’
↩Ḳur’án, ch. xli. 31; Sale, p. 356, l. 18: ‘As for those who say our Lord is God, and who behave uprightly, the angels shall descend unto them and shall say, ’Fear not, neither be ye grieved: but rejoice in the hopes of Paradise which ye have been promised. We are your friends in this life, and in that which is to come: therein shall ye have that which your souls shall desire, and therein shall ye obtain whatever ye shall ask for; as a gift from a gracious and merciful God.’
↩The rúḥ here I presume to mean ‘esprit,’ for which word we have no exact English equivalent. The lines are literally translated, but do not appear very apposite.
↩I suspect the word díbájah has been foisted in here, but all the MSS. agree in giving it, though it would be much better omitted.
↩The merit of these lines, such as it is, consists in a series of puns on dum ‘tail,’ dam breath,’ and ḳadam ‘step,’ and these equivoques are lost in English.
↩Lit. ‘falling and rising,’ a common phrase to express distressed movements.
↩For rakhshindah, ‘shining,’ the lithographed edition reads laghzindah, ‘tripping,’ which is perhaps better as applied to the ant. In the next line but one, in the printed edition, waḳḳád is, by a mistake, written wa ḳád which might mislead the student.
↩Khilál ‘a tooth-pick’ or ‘skewer.’
↩Here again is an equivoque on dam ‘moment,’ dám ‘snare,’ nadam ‘repentance,’ which cannot be retained in English.
↩Ḳur’ah is the lot cast by the Arabs with arrows.
↩Surely the use of the word mardum ‘men,’ is out of place here; it should be ‘animals;’ but into such inconsistencies the absurd notion of ascribing to irrational beings rational thoughts will be sure to lead.
↩Lit.: ‘To draw out his own foot from the midst.’
↩I read, with the MSS., nakhchírgáh, which corresponds to shikárgáh five lines below, and is evidently preferable to the khargah of the editions.
↩Hendiadys. In the text ‘design and injury.’
↩I omit, with the MSS., the man ham bar ánam of the editions.
↩Throughout this story there is a play on sirr ‘secret,’ and sar ‘head.’
↩For ḥujjat we find in the Dictionary ‘argument, proof, pretext;’ I would rather therefore—did the MSS. allow it—read some one word signifying ‘acts,’ ‘proceedings.’
↩Ḳur’án, Fl. ii., 175; Mar. ii., 180; Sale, p. 19, l. 27: ‘O true believers! the law of retaliation is ordained you for the slain, the free shall die for the free, and the servant for the servant, and a woman for a woman: but he whom his brother shall forgive, may be prosecuted and obliged to make satisfaction according to what is just, and a fine shall be set on him with humanity. This is indulgence from your Lord, and mercy. And he who shall transgress after this, by killing the murderer, shall suffer a grievous punishment. And in this law of retaliation ye have life: O ye of understanding, that peradventure ye may fear.’
↩Bá ṭarḥ uftádan, a rare phrase.
↩Ḥaẓrat’ízzat:—Observe the phrase.
↩A very obscure line. Riẓá signifies ‘endeavouring to please.’ It seems to me to mean that, ‘even that which man intends to be equitable is harsh and unjust, whereas God’s justice is pure.’
↩If you supply ’iráẓ ḳardah before az taḳallufát, the meaning might be ‘turning from the luxuries of eating and dress,’ since taḳalluf signifies also ‘costliness.’
↩I have found it impossible to translate literally these impracticable lines. The literal rendering would be, ‘He was weary at the pullings of his collar by grief, and fastened his own skirt to the skirt of the mountain. He placed his body from voluptuousness under cruelty and set his heart from contentment with grass!’
↩Religion is compared to the game of chaugán, in which the pious carry off the ball of happiness.
↩Nafír in Persian is ‘a fife,’ in Arabic ‘a crowd of fugitives.’
↩With the MSS. I read khẉush khẉush ḥubb-i jáh, instead of the khẉush hhẉush saudáí ḥubb-í of the editions.
↩There is an equivoque here which cannot be retained in English. Zál signifies, ‘the father of Rustam,’ as well as ‘old woman.’ Taham-tan, ‘strong-bodied,’ is an epithet of Rustam, who, according to some accounts, was enticed into a pit and slain.
↩Here again is an equivoque on zál, which may be either a woman, or the father of Rustam.
↩Asfandiyár called rúín-tan, ‘brazen-bodied,’ was a celebrated Persian hero, slain by Rustam, after a combat of two days’ duration. He was the son of Gushtásp, of the first dynasty of Persian kings.
↩M’arifat signifies here, and very frequently elsewhere, ‘knowledge of holy things.’
↩The Humá is a bird which the Persians say, flies without ever touching the ground. Yet it is said to feed on bones.
↩Shabgír I take to be ‘starting on a journey between midnight and dawn.’
↩Ḥarakat may apply to the snake or to the movements of the blind man. I have chosen the former application with much doubt as to its accuracy.
↩Here, with what will appear to us considerable bad taste, áh áh is made to rhyme with zár zár.
↩Lit.: ‘drowsy,’ khẉáb álúdah.
↩I make shauḳ-i-jamál refer to the Deity, as in the case of the moth, it does to the brightness of the taper.
↩The ṣubḥ-i ṣádiḳ is ‘the true dawn,’ opposed to ṣubḥ-í káẕib ‘the twilight,’ but the epithet is chosen here with reference to záhid.
↩Bar ámadan is here idiomatically used to signify ‘emerging from,’ in the sense of ‘letting slip,’ ‘losing.’
↩Nah ḥadd-i tú bavad ‘is not in thy limits,’ i.e., is unsuited to thee. A common phrase at the end of letters is ziyádah ḥadd-i adab, ‘more would be beyond the bounds of respect.’ So adab might be understood here with ḥadd.
↩Lit.: ‘the sitters on the carpet of prayer.’
↩I take wiláyat here as used equivocally, signifying both ‘a country’ and also ‘the state of a walí or saint’; so too in the first line of the verses following, ḳaṣabu’s-sabḳ I imagine to be ‘the jaríd of superiority’;—as horsemen catch the jaríd, and thus outdo others, so this saint snatched away from others the superiority.
↩The literal translation of these exceedingly difficult lines, is ‘He in the country [or in the state of a walí] has become a sulṭán in majesty. He made a tiara from the abandonment of the two worlds. He galloped his Rakhsh from eternity without beginning, and played at ball in the horse-tennis of eternity without end.’ Here note that sulṭán panáh is a phrase similar to dárá panáh in p. 12, l. 18 of the Persian text, and that Rakhsh was the name of Rustam’s celebrated steed. These lines may be taken as a specimen of what the translator of Persian verses has to encounter. The late well-known Persian scholar, Mr. Swinton, wrote to recommend that I should inquire the meaning of some phrases here of the Persian ambassador, so difficult did he consider them.
↩ I have chosen this uncouth word as corresponding, in sound as well as sense, to
I have no doubt that an allusion to the Ḥajj is intended here as
Barát-i zimmat—our ‘passport.’
↩I have designedly used this phrase to represent the play upon words in the text.
↩Maukib I take to be ‘a cavalcade,’ markab, which occurs two lines further on, ‘a horse, or whatever serves as vehicle to a man.’ Yet if this be right, I would rather read bá than dar with the former word.
↩I have taken some liberties with these most unpoetical and tiresome verses. There is no word for knife in the first line, and the second is, literally ‘the common people will not find his head.’ In the fourth line I have translated durustí freely, by ‘hopes;’ and náḳiṣ in the last line means ‘imperfect’ rather than ‘trifler.’ One MS., very properly I think, omits the seventh and eight lines, which, if retained, should follow the second. For zaman I would gladly read ẓimn and translate it ‘guarantee.’ On the whole a more wretched attempt at poetry is not to be found in the ‘Anvár-i Suhailí’ than this.
↩This expression, intimating God’s omnipotence, like the ‘Let there be light and there was light’ of Scripture, occurs with a shade of variation in the Ḳur’án, as at ch. xvi. 40; Sale p. 200, 1. 39: ‘Verily our speech unto anything, when we will the same, is, that we only say unto it, ‘Be,’ and it is.’
↩Barát-í ẕímmat in a somewhat different sense from that in p. 180 of the Persian text, last line but three.
↩’Alamiyán ‘men,’ ‘mankind.’
↩Lit. ‘in excess and straining to the utmost.’
↩Ḳur’án, Fl. ch. xvi. 38; Mar. 36; Sale p. 200, 1. 29: ’Wherefore go through the earth, O tribe of Koreish! and see what hath been the end of those who accused their apostles of imposture;” and, Kur’án, Fl. ii. 131, Mar. 137; Sale p. 47, 1. 25: ‘There have already been before you examples of punishment of infidels, therefore go through the earth, and behold what hath been the end of those who accuse God’s apostles of imposture.’
↩Lit.: ‘Should seize thy skirt.’
↩Lit.: ‘Pointed at by the finger of the world.’
↩The wind as it curls the waters is said to delineate figures upon them.
↩The black hair on the white cheek looked like night painted on day!
↩I omit kih after waḳt as do the MSS. Either that or the va before lá shak must evidently be dispensed with.
↩Here is an equivoque—ḳabá kardan is ‘to make a cloak,’ and also ‘to rend a garment by tearing open the bosom.’
↩So I venture to translate majlis-i mazálim.
↩The editions have darúgh giram, of which I can make no sense. I read with a MS. darúgh ḳaram.
↩A most inapt speech of the lioness, who had before her the example of Damnah’s destroying Shanzabah through envy; but the remark is made merely as a peg to hang the next story upon.
↩Lit: ‘What will arrive to another?’
↩Ḳur’án, Fl. iv. 57; Mar. iv. 52; Sale p. 62, l. 15: ‘These are the men whom God hath cursed, and unto him whom God shall curse, thou shalt surely find no helpers. Shall they have a part of the kingdom, since even then they would not bestow the smallest matter on men? Do they envy other men that which God, of his bounty, hath given them?’
↩ Ḳur’án, Fl. xxxii. 11; Mar. xxxii. 12; Sale p. 310, l. 12: ‘And they say, when we shall
lie hidden in the earth, shall we be raised thence a new creature? Yea! they deny the
meeting of their Lord at the resurrection. Say, the angel of death, who is set over you shall
cause you to die; then shall ye be brought back unto your Lord.’ Flügel reads
The only sense I can extract from this difficult couplet.
↩Lit.: ‘Shall gnaw the back of his hand with the tooth of regret.’
↩There is a misprint here in the edition of 1851, which might cause trouble to the student. For dilat rázi it should be dilat-rá zi. In the next line read naṣíḥat for baṣíḥat.
↩These lines occur in the fourth story of the first Book of the Gulistán. See my translation, p. 44, l. 8.
↩