Haft paykar - The Haft Paikar of Niẓāmī (Wilson)

1,864. “Saturn and Jupiter in aspect trine.” Two planets are in trine aspect when they are 120 degrees, i.e., four zodiacal signs, apart from one another. The symbol for this aspect, which is favourable, is &25b3.

1,865. The sun passes from Pisces into Aries on the 21st of March, which is in Persia the beginning of the New Year and of Spring.

1,866. “Khiẓr-like.” (See Notes 274, 1,201, 1,562, and 1,698.)

1,867. “A Nile”; i.e., the celestial Nile, one of the supposed rivers of paradise.

Salsabīl is also the name of a supposed stream in paradise.

1,868. “Aloes”; i.e., aloes-wood, likened in respect of its colour to the earth.

1,869. i.e., caused the flowers to grow.

1,870. i.e., devoted itself to making them grow and flourish.

1,871. i.e., the sun shone brightly without clouds or mist. Mirrors were made of metal.

1,872. This hemistich might also be rendered:

“The plants increased the lustre of the eyes”: Sabza gauhar fuzūda bīnish-rā.

1,873. i.e., the snow was melted by the heat of the sun and flowed down into the river.

1,874. Galia; i.e., galia moschata, a mixture of perfumes containing musk. (See the latter part of Note 146.)

1,875. A reference both to the colour of the red lotus and also to the fiery heat of the sun.

1,876. The (white) blossoms of Spring are likened to pearls, which pearls by their number are made “wide-spread” (i.e., abundant), farākh, as the tulips’ petals are farākh, though in another sense, i.e., that of “wide”. I have attempted to convey the double meaning by the term “wide-spread”.

1,877. i.e., the cypress and box-tree intermingled their foliage.

Allusion is made to the comb-like leaves of the cypress, and the curliness of the foliage of the box-tree.

1,878. The “gold ingots” are the yellow stamens.

1,879. Both “pastils” and “stars” mean flowers; i.e., the flowers were scattering themselves or were scattered.

By the use of the word “stars” for “flowers” it may be said, too, that the former were scattered or dispersed before the Resurrection. (See the Qur’ān, lxxxii., 1, 2.)

1,880. “Saffron.” (See Note 1,459.)

The distich implies that the fenugreek and the saffron grew close together.

By “tears” may be meant the stamens, or, perhaps, dew-drops.

By “smiling” may be meant displaying its clusters of red flowers.

1,881. i.e., simply, the anemone had been created red.

1,882. i.e., appearing in their whiteness as pearls.

1,883. The stem of the hyacinth is likened to the style used for applying collyrium.

The dark blue blossom of a species of hyacinth is compared with tutty or collyrium.

The sense of the hemistich is that the hyacinth showed itself in its beautiful colouring.

1,884. Dīlam, a region and town in Gīlān on the Caspian, the inhabitants of which had curly hair. (See also Note 280.)

1,885. The forked or double-headed arrow is not adequately described in the dictionaries, but it is mentioned by them as a cutting weapon. This, taken with the simile in the hemistich, would tend to show that the head of it had the shape of a crescent moon, the inner curve being sharp like a knife. The scalloped edge of many leaves, especially that of the holly, gives examples of this shape.

The grass is likened to shears on account of its bifurcations.

1,886. The jessamine blossoms later than the yellow wall-flower.

1,887. In connexion with the rose the “gold” refers to its stamens, and the silver to its petals. As regards the loved one the “gold and silver” mean her ear-rings.

1,888. Lit., “From the bane of the ‘arrows’ (bīd-barg, which means literally ‘willow-leaves’) of Autumn’s winds the branches (of the willow) were biting (their) hands on account of their lost ‘willow-leaves’ (barg-i bīd).”

The hands or fingers of the willow are of course its leaves, and if the sense is not purely metaphorical, these leaves must be the early buds, which on account of their short and stunted appearance might suggest the idea of their having been bitten. Wa-’llāhu a‘lam.

1,889. i.e., played them for itself. (See Note 1,779.)

1,890. i.e., pierced them by its shrillness.

1,891. The Zand; i.e., the Zend Avesta, the Zoroastrian Scriptures. “The Zand-intoner” is the nightingale.

1,892. For an account of the expression khāqān-i Chīn, see Note 694.

With regard to the people now spoken of, and their irruption, the following account by Canon Rawlinson (The Seventh Oriental Monarchy) may be quoted:—

“Various names are given to the people with whom Persia waged her wars during this period. They are called Turks, Huns, sometimes even Chinese; but these terms seem to be used in a vague way, as Scythian was by the ancients, and the special ethnic designation of the people appears to be quite a different name from any of them. It is a name the Persian form of which is Haïthal or Haïathêleh, the Armenian Hephthagh, and the Greek Ephthalites, or sometimes Nephthalites.

“Different conjectures have been formed as to its origin; but none of them can be regarded as more than an ingenious theory. All that we know of the Ephthalites is that they were established in force, during the fifth and sixth centuries of our era, in the regions east of the Caspian, especially in those beyond the Oxus River, and that they were generally regarded as belonging to the Scythic or Finno-Turkic population, which, at any rate from 200 B.C., had become powerful in that region. . . . It is probable that they belonged to the Thibetic or Turkish stock, which has always been in advance of the Finnic.

“We are told that the war of Varahrān V. (Bahrām V.) with this people commenced with an invasion of his kingdom by their Khacan or Khan, who crossed the Oxus with an army of 25,000 (or according to others of 250,000) men, and carried fire and sword into some of the most fertile provinces of Persia. The rich oasis, known as Meru or Merv, the ancient Margiana, is especially mentioned as overrun by his troops, which are said by some to have crossed the Elburz range into Khorassan and to have proceeded westward as far as Rei, or Rhages. When news of the invasion reached the Persian court, the alarm felt was great; Varahran was pressed to assemble his forces at once and encounter the unknown enemy; he, however, professed complete indifference, said that the Almighty would preserve the empire, and that, for his own part, he was going to hunt in Azerbijan, or Media Atropatene. During his absence the government could be conducted by Narses, his brother.”

Bahrām, however, started from Azerbijan with a small force, and, marching by night and carefully masking his movements, reached the vicinity of Merv, and by a night attack completely defeated the invaders and drove them back across the Oxus. The Khāqān was killed, and no further hostilities occurred in this quarter during the rest of Bahrām’s reign.

In a footnote Rawlinson says, “Mirkhond calls the invader ‘the Khācān of China’, though he speaks of the army as composed of Turks.” (See also Notes 694, 991, and 995.)

1,893. “Each dragon”; i.e., each warrior.

1,894. Rāst-rūshan means Straight-bright.

1,895. Narsī (Narses) had been previously the king’s vazīr. Bahrām had also a brother of the same name. (See Note 1,892.)

1,896. An allusion to the wolf which was reported to have devoured Joseph. (See the Qur’ān, xii., 17, 18.)

1,897. Siyāvash was the son of King Kai-Kā’ūs. He was falsely accused of making love to his step-mother, but when cast into fire escaped from it unscathed. He was ultimately killed by Afrāsiyāb, king of Tūrān.

1,898. For an account of Jamshīd, see Note 1,377.

1,899. Darius. Firdausī mentions only Dārāb and Dārā as the Darii, the second the son of the first. Dārāb, he recounts, died a natural death, and Dārā was stabbed by his vazīr Jānūsiyār, with whom and another vazīr, Māhiyār, he had fled from the victorious Alexander. Alexander afterwards had both vazīrs put alive upon the cross, where they were stoned to death by soldiers. Nizāmī must therefore be speaking metaphorically of the sufferings of Darius at the hands of his servants.

1,900. i.e., they have so much wealth that they are sated before being able to use it all, and it consequently goes to waste, and, if perishable, is spoilt.

1,901. The Author apparently means here by “earth” the particular mode of treatment applied. If earth is put into water it makes it turbid and spoils it, but, if it is used to filter it, it makes it clear and useful. So wealth, if treated improperly, is useless, but if treated properly it is valuable.

1,902. The sense of shavad here is apparently not “should come”, but “should go”; i.e., “should not come” (rendered here “be used not”), for cf. the next distich but two.

1,903. I have translated from the reading:

The meaning is that the probity of no man was accounted perfect unless he bribed with the whole of his possessions. The implication that he was thus obliged to surrender his all makes this reading practically equivalent to that of the B. ed. of 1328, which is as follows:

“All, whether more or less, Rāst-rūshan took as bribes (the people had) to (offer) him.” The sense, however, of the adverbial locution az kam-u bīsh is quite different in the two readings.

1,904. A rhetorical paradox. The meaning is that the richer a man was the more likely he was to be noticed and utterly stripped.

1,905. “In others’ hands”; i.e., in the hands of the house-thieves, who were of course the vazīr and his agents.

1,906. “No one could strike a balance to the good”; lit., “no one wrote a sum-total for income”: dakhl-rā kas faẕālikī na-nuvisht.

1,907. i.e., no one would clear up the darkness of the secret.

1,908. i.e., the sky or fortune.

1,909. Lit., “the more he sought water the less he found it.”

1,910. i.e., firmly, tightly, as a stone is bound up, as it were, in itself.

1,911. “A sun-stirred dawn” means the white light of the dawn which is stirred up, as it were, by the sun, with perhaps some reference to the ruddy light of the sun about to rise.

The sense is here that the old man’s hair was white, and possibly too that he had a ruddy face.

1,912. i.e., he no longer attended to his business.

1,913. Chand naubat qivām dāshtam-ash. Qivām is here apparently equivalent to qiyām, which means “forbearing (with), making no change (as regards)”.

The B. ed. of 1328 has,

Chand naubat mu‘āf dāshtam-ash: “I pardoned him on several occasions.”

1,914. i.e., of course, from the present owners of the sheep and dog.

1,915. i.e., the course or policy pursued by the shepherd, which served as a model for the king.

1,916. Dar namūdār-i īn qaẓīyat-i man.

The B. ed. of 1328 and some of the I.O. MSS. read,

Dar namūdār-i aimanīyat-i man: “Within the purview of my trust.”

1,917. i.e., there must surely be some traces left.

1,918. Rūz or rūzgār siyāh shudan (bar kasī), “for the day or time to become black (to a person),” means “his becoming distressed”. With regard to “the list”, the sense is that it was written with black ink, but there is also some allusion to the wickedness of the vazīr as shown in the list.

1,919. “He said, Where grief and joy must bear their part,” the king may kill, the vazīr intercede: “Guft, Dar sharḥ-hā-yi mātam-u sūr,” kushtan az shah, shifā‘at az dastūr.

The first hemistich rendered more literally is,

“He said, In the proportions, or assessings of mourning and feasting.”

The sense of the distich is that in life grief and joy bear certain proportions to each other. The king who is all powerful may be sometimes severe, but it is the duty of the vazīr to seek to mitigate this severity if it seem to transgress the bounds of justice. In the next distich, however, the king intimates that the vazīr instead of trying to mitigate severity, which it is his duty to do, has used nothing but severity and oppression, and by doing so has blackened the name of the king who, being all powerful, is considered the real and responsible author of the oppression.

The B. ed. of 1328 reads,

Guft, Dar shahr-hā-yi mātam-u sūr: “He said, In towns where people mourn or feast.”

1,920. This seems opposed to the general idea that Chien qui aboie ne mord pas, but all the editions I have consulted read, bi-khurūshand, and not na-khurūshand. It forms a parallel, however, to the conduct of the vazīr, who does make an outcry in accusation when he lacerates by robbing.

1,921. Kas ba-raf‘-ash qalam nayārad pīsh; lit., “no one will advance the pen for his dismissal”; i.e., probably, write and petition for his dismissal; but qalam pīsh āvardan is not given by the dictionaries, the nearest to it being qalam āvardan, “to write.” One might suggest ‘alam pīsh āvardan, “to advance the standard,” which would be, I think, practically equivalent to ‘alam burdan or bastan, “to set up the standard”; i.e., “to prepare to contend.”

1,922. i.e., in the sombreness of his disgrace the light of truth will best appear.

Another sense may be that the light of the king’s angry reproaches striking suddenly upon the darkness of the vazīr’s wickedness will show it up more distinctly.

1,923. “Two-sworded” refers to the white streaks of dawn which extend from the east to the north and south.

“By its single stroke” means by the simultaneous appearance of these streaks.

The second hemistich signifies “deprived the moon of its more ruddy colour”.

1,924. This distich may also be rendered, “’Tis clear to me as truth that through your means truth has departed, clearness passed away”: Az tu bar man chu rāst rūshan gasht rāstī raft-u rūshanī bi-guẕasht.

1,925. i.e., of the threatenings or strokes of the sky or fortune which may affect me and my people.

1,926. Theologians and other learned and distinguished men wore a special kind of turban.

1,927. I have translated from the reading of the B. ed. of 1328:

I.O. MS. 1168 reads,

I think the second vazīr in this has the sense of “helper”, and should translate,

1,928. i.e., they used their wits against him who had used his against them; or they injured the injurious. Or, possibly, they used words as bitter as his deeds had been.

1,929. Lit., “burnt at the fraud on his life”: sūkht bar ghabn-i zindagāni-yi ū. This is the reading of the B. ed. of 1328,

Another reading is,

sūkht bar ‘ain-i zindagāni-yi ū: “burnt at the source or spring of his life.” The only sense of this, I think, is, “suffered affliction at (his death in) the flower of his age.”

1,930. “The price of blood”; i.e., on account of his brother’s death.

1,931. “The service due”; i.e., to a man in his position.

1,932. “Through love of it he wished to take the field”; i.e., he wished to dispute the possession of it with me, the word dasht being used here apparently in the sense of dasht-i āvard-gāh.

A rhetorical image is also conveyed by the apparent paradox of the vazīr’s wishing to take “the field” (or, rather, in this connexion, “the plain or wilderness,” dasht) through love of “the garden”, bāgh.

1,933. Lit., “that I may give light to your lamp.” Cf. the expression Chirāgh rūshan! “(May your) lamp (be) bright”! used in wishing success.

1,934. i.e., every person has love and desire of something.

1,935. “Fields,” kisht-ābād. This term does not occur in the dictionaries, but I take it to be equivalent to kisht-zār, “a place of seed, a sown field.”

“Like Baghdād”; i.e., fine and flourishing. Baghdād is also called Dāru ’s-Salām, which means both “the mansion of peace”, and also “paradise”.

1,936. “Places on the sea,” daryā-bār; i.e., probably places near pearl-fisheries—possibly by the Persian Gulf. (Cf. the next distich.)

1,937. “Like dawn’s lamp”; i.e., like the sun.

1,938. “I in appraising was most moderate,” dar bahā dāshtam basī āzarm. “Moderation” as an equivalent of āzarm is not found in the dictionaries; but it is, I think, sufficiently indicated here by the context. The nearest equivalents given are “modesty, bashfulness”, or, perhaps, “easiness.” “Equity, justice” are also given, so that the sense may be that the merchant was most equitable in the price demanded.

1,939. “A few days, good or evil, (passed away),” Rūzakī chand az siyāh-u safīd.

In translating, I have taken az siyāh-u safīd, lit., “of black and white,” with rūzakī chand. In this the expression would portray the merchant’s varying states of mind, whilst offering also a rhetorical embellishment in the reference of “black and white” to the day of twenty-four hours.

If the expression be taken with “wile on wile” of the second hemistich it would refer to the more or less plausible nature of the wiles employed. Cf. in the last distich but one, “all kinds of vain excuses,” gūna-gūna(h) bahāna.

1,940. The rhetorical antithesis is between the pearls taken by the vazīr and the stones which he bestows. The expression mānda ba-sang, “left upon stones,” may be taken both literally and figuratively, referring in the former case to the stone of the jail, and in the latter to the abject state to which the prisoner is reduced. (Cf. the idio n ba-sar-i sang nishāndan, or nishastan, “to seat, or sit on stone or stones,” which means figuratively “to render, or become abject”.)

The reading of the B. ed. of 1328, mānda ba-tang, “left in affliction,” is probably incorrect.

1,941. As regards the shell the pit would, of course, be the sea.

1,942. i.e., her mouth was so small that it and nothing might be considered synonymous.

The second hemistich means that her mouth night be called “honey in smiles” by reason of its sugary smiling. It is possible, however, that the sense may be, “(she had named ‘nothing’) ‘honey in smiles,’ because her mouth (which was as nothing) gave sugary smiles.”

1,943. i.e., even as the night perishes before the sun, so the day perished before the brightness of her face.

1,944. The musician has called himself “foreign” in the second distich.

1,945. i.e., the Spring was deprived of all its beauty before her beautiful face.

1,946. i.e., her face was bright as a luminous candle.

1,947. i.e., she burnt her lover’s heart.

1,948. Lit., “A bright and straight one.” The words “bright, straight” are a play upon the vazīr’s name, Rāst-rūshan.

1,949. i.e., the world is attached to your court and belongs to it.

1,950. The complainant who speaks of himself as ra’īs-i fulān raṣad-gāh, “the chief or superintendent of a certain revenue-office” (or it may be “observatory”), was probably one of the Magi or priests, to whom, says Canon Rawlinson, Chosroës the First allowed a certain administrative power in civil matters, and the supervision of the collection of the revenue.

Canon Rawlinson says too that besides the offerings which were lavished upon them by the faithful, they were allowed to claim tithes of their possessions, and possessed considerable endowments in land, which furnished them with an assured subsistence. He adds that, “Besides the sacerdotal, the Magi claimed to exercise the prophetical office. From a very early date they had made themselves conspicuous as omen-readers and dream-expounders; but not content with such occasional exhibitions of prophetic power, they ultimately reduced divination to a system, and by the help of the barsom, or bundle of divining rods, undertook to return a true answer on all points connected with the future upon which they might be consulted.”

This makes it probable that to these functions they added those of astrologer. This conjecture, if the man was a priest, is, at least, slightly supported by his applying the title star-king to Bahrām in the preceding distich, and also by the fact that raṣad-gāh means not only a “revenue-office” but also an “observatory”.

That this was a prevailing opinion is, I think, probably supported by the following lines in the Shāh-nāma relating to Yazdijard’s wish to know when and where he should die:

Zi-shāhī pur andīsha shud Yazdagird zi-har kishvarī mūbidān kard gird

Ba-akhtar-shināsān bi-farmūd shāh ki tā kard har yak ba-akhtar nigāh

Ki tā kai buvad dar jahān marg-i ū kujā tīra gardad sar-ū targ-i ū:

“(Then) Yazdagird, concerned about his reign, from every part assembled (all) the priests.

“The king commanded the astrologers to observe, each one, (the aspect of) the stars:

“To find when in the world his death should be, (and) where his head and helm should be obscured.”

The king’s object was evidently only to have the stars consulted, so that if the priests were not the astrologers there seems to be no reason for his having assembled them. (See also Note 780.)

1,951. i.e., I made it flourishing and kept it in good order.

1,952. Shah-i Sharq, “the Eastern King,” means the sun. The title is applied to the king on account of his splendour.

The second hemistich is literally, “I plunged the world into joy.”

1,953. “Provision for the road”; i.e., for the road to the future state.

1,954. Lit., “I gave to every person an order (barāt) for his subsistence.”

1,955. The B. ed. of 1328 has,

bīvagān sīr-u bīva-dārān ham, “whereof comes absurdity.”

The correct reading is, no doubt, bīva-zādān, “the children of widows.”

1,956. See Note 1,950.

1,957. An ass-load is described as a weight of a hundred Tabrīz maunds. The Tabrīz maund weighed about eleven pounds.

1,958. i.e., he found his fortune restored by the prospect of the king’s help.

1,959. “Some time ago,” ba-muddat pīsh. The B. ed. of 1328 has, zi-daulat-i khvīsh, “out of his wealth.”

1,960. “A piece of land”; lit., “a piece of bread,” but the former rendering is justified by subsequent distichs.

1,961. Chu itlāfiyān (lit., “as spendthrifts”), the reading of the B. ed. of 1328.

Another reading is chu iṭlāqiyān, which might be rendered, “as a free and easy or careless person.”

1,962. i.e., dissociate yourself from your arrow-heads; i.e., arms generally. At the same time the vazīr implies that the man is rusting in idleness.

1,963. The pen was the symbol of the vazīr’s control and power.

1,964. i.e., I will appeal to him.

1,965. i.e., as one having absolute power he spoke harshly to me who was powerless; or, more generally, he as vazīr made me feel his power.

1,966. The sense is apparently, “you would try by tears to affect me as if I were a dolt.”

The literal meaning has reference probably to the watering by agriculturists of clods or dry earth. I scarcely think the expression has any connexion with the idiom kulūkh dar āb afgandan, “to throw clods into the water,” which means “to be litigious, to wish to contend”, but I am not sure, as the origin of that idiom is not explained or clear.

1,967. See Note 1,965.

1,968. i.e., a robe of honour, khil‘at.

1,969. The attitudes assumed in prayer form an important part of Muḥammadan worship. The mental attitude, however, of the holy man is supposed to have a powerful effect upon the person to whom it is directed, as it is indicated in the second hemistich. (Cf. also the three distichs which follow the next three.)

1,970. See, for the same idiom, Note 1,272.

1,971. i.e., they cannot by binding the ascetic prevent his mental attitude from having effect upon the person to whom it is directed. He is not like robbers who would not have this power, and who when bound would be quite helpless to affect people.

1,972. i.e., the mental attitude of the ascetic—here one of distress and vexation—towards the vazīr would bring down curses upon the latter. (Cf. the last Note.)

1,973. See Note 1,926.

1,974. “(But) the ascetic would not take such ease”:

Zāhid ān farsh-i dāda-rā bi-navasht; lit., “The ascetic folded up the carpet which had been given,” i.e., he refused to stay and enjoy the comfort offered.

The B. ed. of 1328 has,

Zāhid ān farsh-i rāh-rā bi-navasht: “(But) the ascetic went upon his way”; lit., “The ascetic folded up that carpet, the road.”

1,975. Charkh-vār bi-gasht: “he became like the (whirling) wheel”; i.e., either, “he departed rapidly,” or, “he appeared exalted as the wheel, the sky.” Or, it may mean simply, “he departed rapidly like a whirling wheel.”

1,976. “Those travellers on the Path” are ascetic holy men or Ṣūfī saints whose spirits are exalted as the heavens, although their bodies are of earth.

After this distich the Author inveighs against worldly and corrupt people, of whom, as he implies, the world is mainly composed.

1,977. i.e., for one holy man you may find whose soul has been disciplined and matured you will see thousands of undisciplined and immature people.

1,978. i.e., however great the worldly undisciplined, immature people may become, their real nature is shown in their origin, which is as a sink. By a sink is meant apparently their bodily nature and carnal soul.

The sink means literally the small pool of water which is often formed near the source of a spring. In the B. ed. of 1328 the present distich occurs after the one beginning,

“(But) ere you find matured wine in the cup,” and after this latter, which reads differently in the B. ed., is found the following,

“The monarch in this brick-kiln of the earth became a damp brick from his sorrowing.”

If this be not spurious the subsequent distich should be rendered a little differently.

It will be necessary to give translations of the readings of the B. ed. from “Those travellers on the Path, etc.” They are as follows:—

“Those travellers on the Path who have been so, whose heads from earth have touched upon the heavens,

“Before they found matured wine in the cup, suffered much trouble from the unripe grape.

“The water of the stream, so vehement, is from the rill which rises from a sink,—

“The monarch from this brick-kiln of the earth became a damp brick from his sorrowing.

“(He thought), This set, although of human stock, are all (but) demons, though entitled men.”

The second of these distichs, referring to “the travellers on the Path”, necessitates the explanation that the Ṣūfī before reaching the knowledge of God suffered all the preliminary hard discipline of the Ṣūfī training. The meaning of the next distich would be that by the Ṣūfī discipline one may rise from the lowest condition of humanity to the highest spiritual state—that of the Universal Spirit—and to union with God.

In the subsequent distich reference is made to the monarch’s tears in his sorrowing state.

The world is called “a brick-kiln” because of the bricks, the human bodies, which are moulded in it.

1,979. i.e., the carnal soul obscures the higher or human soul and the higher spirit.

1,980. This distich and the following three refer to Bahrām.

1,981. i.e., when the sun rose and adorned and illumined the world.

1,982. i.e., as the rain refreshes the plants, so the king’s presence by the certainty it afforded of justice refreshed the people.

1,983. “The car of justice”; lit., “the camel of justice.”

1,984. This will recall the line,

Guṃbad-i gardanda zi-rūy-ī qiyās hast ba-nīkī-u badī ḥaq-shinās (ḥaq, metr. caus., for ḥaqq).

1,985. The B. ed. of 1328 has for mīkh-i kīna, “the nails of malice,” tukhm-i kīna, “the seed of malice.”

1,986. i.e., here, the ruler of the Hayāṭila. (See Notes 694, 991, 995, and 1,892.)

1,987. The B. ed. of 1328 has in the second hemistich,

k’ābiy az dast bar rukh andāzad: “in throwing a little water on (his) face.” The sense is, figuratively, “in doing any deed which would bring him honour.” (Cf. the expression āb-i rukh or āb-i rūy, “honour,” lit., “water or lustre of the face.”) I.O. MS. 1168 reads,

k´asp az dast bar rukh andāzad: “in bringing, on a favourable opportunity, the knight (lit., horse) against the castle”; i.e., presumably, “in urging his horse against the enemy’s forces.” But as this seems rather strained, I am inclined to doubt the correctness of this reading.

1,988. i.e., I am as an Ethiopian slave to the king.

Another reading is,

“I am either of China or of Ethiopia”; i.e., I am as you would make me, either ruler of China, or your slave as from Ethiopia.

But I think the reading of the Bombay edition, from which I have translated, is preferable.

1,989. i.e., the seven beauties of the Seven Domes.

1,990. The sense is probably, “He who embellishes his teaching by rhetorical beauties.” Or possibly “the rubies” may imply the name of the king to whom the poem is dedicated. (See Note 2,087.)

1,991. i.e., by the festivities, discourses, and stories told in the Domes.

1,992. i.e., his intellect acquainted him with the destruction effected by the moving dome, the sky, by which is meant fortune. (See the next distich but two.) The sky was supposed to move round the earth.

1,993. i.e., his brain was excited by the thought, but I have rendered “was heated”, as excitement does not apply to a dome.

1,994. This joy-effacing dome”; i.e., the sky as fortune.

1,995. Lit., “He left the Seven Domes on the heavens”; i.e., he took no further account of them, or rather, perhaps, he devoted them to religious purposes. (Cf. the next distich.)

A secondary meaning may be, “He left the Seven Domes towering to the heavens.”

A third, “He left the seven domes, the seven heavens, to the heavens,” (and betook himself to a loftier dome, that of religious worship and spirituality).

1,996. i.e., he devoted himself to religion, spirituality, and the worship and love of God.

1,997. i.e., When the king of cypress form had reached the age of sixty, and his black hair had turned white.

1,998. “The tomb of solitude”; i.e., presumably, a solitary tomb. One would surmise it meant isolation from all things of earth but for the next distich. The rhetorical merit of the distich is in the use of the word gūr, which means both “wild ass” and also “tomb”.

1,999. In this and the following distich the Author is still playing on the word gūr, which means “wild ass” and “tomb”, and also on the word āhū, which signifies “gazelle” and “vice”.

2,000. “This salt plain”; i.e., “the world,” called “salt” in respect of its barren worthlessness.

2,001. See Note 1,999.

2,002. Gūrkhān, which may bear the sense of wild-ass=king, is applied here as a title to Bahrām on account of his devotion to the chase of the wild-ass.

For the original meaning of Gūrkhān, see Note 636.

2,003. Bar girifta ba-qaṣd chāra-gar-ash. “His helper”; i.e., the onager, a heavenly messenger.

The B. ed. of 1328 has,

Bar girifta ba-pūya chār-par-ash: “His four-winged (steed) he pressed on at a gallop”; or, “His four-winged (steed) bore him on at a gallop.”

Or, if bar is a MS. error for par, we should translate,

“His four-winged (steed) took wings on in (its) gallop,” or, “for (its) gallop.”

2,004. Lit., “no person (had) any road to its gate”; i.e., to the gate of the chasm in the cave.

As the slave-boys stand at the mouth of the cave, and the guards afterwards search inside of it, there is apparently an inconsistency, unless the Author means that there was no outlet to it. Or it may be that poetical exaggeration is expressing as impossible that which was, perhaps, only difficult and dangerous.

The sense might possibly be that no one had previously found the way to its mouth, but this seems somewhat strained.

The following account from Canon Rawlinson’s “Seventh Oriental Monarchy” is of interest in this connexion:

“After a reign which is variously estimated at nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, and twenty-three years Bahrām died by a death which would have been thought incredible, had not a repetition of the disaster, on the traditional site, been witnessed by an English traveller in comparatively recent times.

“The Persian writers state that Bahrām was engaged in the hunt of the wild ass, when his horse came suddenly upon a deep pool or spring of water, and either plunged into it, or threw his rider into it, with the result that Bahrām sank and never reappeared.

“The supposed scene of the incident is a valley between Ispahan and Shiraz. Here, in 1810, an English soldier lost his life through bathing in the spring traditionally declared to be that which proved fatal to Bahrām. The coincidence has caused the general acceptance of a tale which would probably have been otherwise regarded as altogether romantic and mythical.”

The Encyclopœdia of Islām says Bahrām reigned from A.D. 430 to 438, and that he died after a fall while hunting.

It also says that “his strength and skill in bodily exercises earned him the name of Gōr, ‘wild ass,’ not given, as the legend has it, because he transfixed a lion and a wild ass with one arrow”.

2,005. “The Loved One” presumably means the Deity, with whom he is united and in communion. The term is yār-i ghār, “the cave-friend,” a term which was applied originally to Abū Bakr, the first Khalif, who hid with Muḥammad in a cave on the flight from Mecca.

2,006. Lit., “they saw the snake-stone in the snake’s brain.”

The king is likened to the jewel or snake-stone in the snake’s head, which was supposed to be an antidote against its poison.

By its being in the serpent’s brain (i.e., in the cavern) is implied that it is difficult or impossible to attain to it. (See also Note 1,693.)

2,007. The elephant is supposed to dream of its native India.

The sense, as regards the king, is that he had returned to his native place, the spiritual world, and to union with the Deity.

2,008. “Check to king and castle” by “the bishop”, called in Oriental chess “the elephant”. The term is pīl-band, “bound by the bishop,” and is explained as above by Dr. Forbes in his History of Chess. It should be added that the castle was the most valuable piece in Oriental chess.

The meaning of the distich is that the king had escaped the trammels of the world and the body, and attained to the spiritual state and to union with God.

2,009. The king being as a buried treasure, which is supposed to be always guarded by a snake or dragon.

2,010. Lit., “the more she sought the less she found.”

2,011. Sāz-i īn hīch chāra-sāz na-dād.

The B. ed. of 1328 has,

sāz-i chāra(h) ba-chāra-sāz na-dād: “no means of help on helpers she bestowed.”

2,012. Lit., “in farewell to the deposit of others”; i.e., the deposit belonging to others and confided to you only for a time.

2,013. i.e., which she had pledged to Bahrām.

2,014. i.e., all the kings his descendants have lived in fame.

2,015. i.e., think how Bahrām with all his glory came to the tomb.

2,016. In this and the preceding four distichs there is a play upon the two senses of the word gūr, “wild-ass,” and “tomb”.

2,017. i.e., man is, on an average, three ells high and one ell broad. The “four jars” are the four humours, the sanguine, phlegmatic, bilious, and splenetic, associated with the blood, the phlegm, the liver, and the spleen, the first red, the second white, the third yellow, and the fourth black.

“The dyer” is the body.

2,018. More literally, “the inspector or superintendent of police of a town,” shaḥna.

2,019. i.e., those who from their sordid nature are prone to grovel for worldly advantages meet with nothing but humiliation.

2,020. i.e., Why do you worry yourself in your relations with others? Why do you trouble as to what they may effect?

2,021. “Your field,” and “your canvas” both mean “your mind”, which contains and encompasses all things. The mind or spirit in its fullest extent, as with the prophet or saint, is as the Universal Spirit, in which all ideas exist. From these ideas, by incarnation, all things in the phenomenal world arise. (See the next distich.)

2,022. i.e., in your mind or spirit.

2,023. That “one line” is alif, the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, which, as a straight line to which nothing is attached, is taken as a symbol of the Deity. Man is called here “central dot” because his heart or rational soul, which constitutes him as man, is considered as the centre of all, occupying a middle place between the necessary existence of God, vujūb, and the contingent existence of all else, imkān.

2,024. “Those other letters” are all things other than God, which follow, as it were, upon alif, the first letter. (See the last Note.)

2,025. It is apparently implied that one may judge of good and ill by a kind of intuition. It is certainly believed by the Ṣūfī that one cannot attain to spirituality and union with the Deity by reason, but only by becoming the disciple of a Ṣūfī saint, and by following out the Ṣūfī Path. The orthodox belief too is that reason has nothing to do with the uṣūl of Dogma. (See Note 2,076.)

2,026. i.e., seek spiritual wisdom and discernment where they may be found, or be (if you can) a being who can discern without having found discernment, which no one can be.

2,027. “The eyes” mean here probably “the eyes of reason”, and reason, as explained in Note 2,025, is powerless to estimate the Light of spirituality which is the abode or heaven of the angels.

2,028. i.e., the earth takes sample-tastes, as it were, to distinguish what is of heaven or spiritual. It is a place where what is of heaven may be sought.

2,029. i.e., one may attain on earth to the heavenly or spiritual.

2,030. i.e., turn from this world and the things of it.

2,031. “A chamber with four flues”; i.e., the world, in respect of its four quarters.

Dūd, “smoke,” which is implied in the first hemistich, means also “distress, affliction, anguish, sadness”.

2,032. “A thing of two doors”; i.e., the world, in respect of birth and death.

2,033. The world in respect of its having four quarters is likened to a species of wallet or bag with four flaps or sides which may be closed and tied with four fastenings. (See also Note 383.)

2,034. “The village”; i.e., the world.

2,035. i.e., make proper preparation for your journey.

2,036. “The horse” is the carnal or animal soul. By loading it lightly is meant not engaging with it any more than is absolutely necessary.

There is a parallel passage to this in Rūmī’s Masnavī:

“Ride the ass bare-backed, O seeker of superfluities; did not the prophet ride an ass bare-backed?” The Note (392) which I appended to this is as follows:

“By ‘riding the ass bare-backed’ is meant pursuing one’s course with a soul free from sensual desires and evil passions, the soul having by discipline become ‘nafs-i muṭma´inna’; i.e., ‘a tranquillized soul’ which no longer seeks sensual gratification.” (C. E. Wilson’s Translation of Rūmī’s Masnavī, Book II.)

2,037. In agreement with the Gnostic belief that he who knows the nature of the higher soul is immortal.

2,038. In this and the next three distichs the Author is alluding to the Universal Spirit, Rūḥ-i Kull, the first Creation, (or Emanation), and to the a’yān-i sābita, “fixed essences, prototypes, or ideas” in it of all things which by incarnation appear in the phenomenal world.

2,039. i.e., though the spiritual world is limitless and beautiful, we have nothing in view but things of the material world, which are as thorns in the eyes.

2,040. i.e., the spiritual world has nothing of the darkness or light of the material world.

2,041. “These seven tablets”; i.e., the seven earths.

“With their four-fold make”; i.e., consisting of the four elements.

2,042. I have adopted the reading of the B. ed. of 1328:

Another reading is,

Daur-i āhasta-rau ki dūd-kush (or, dūd-kash) ast: “Slow-moving time or fortune which is a smoke-killer.”

Dūd, “smoke,” means also “vapour, sighs, affliction”, but the compound dūd-kush, “a smoke-killer,” can have no meaning here whichever of these senses be applied.

Dūd-kash, “a smoke-drawer,” i.e., “a chimney,” would give sense, but we can scarcely take it as a rhyme to zūd-kush in the second hemistich. It is possible that the correct reading may be,

Daur-i āhasta-rau ki tīz-hush ast: “Slow-moving fortune which is keen of sense,” but the antithesis is scarcely better than in the reading of the Bombay edition.

The meaning is that the world or fortune revenges any infringement of its laws.

2,043. i.e., the world or fortune is not a wanton tyrant, but deals with everyone, weak or powerful, in the manner appointed by God’s preordinances. As the next distich indicates, it gives each one his allotted portion. Notwithstanding this, it is a common practice, even with the greatest writers, to complain of the capriciousness and tyranny of the world or fortune.

2,044. This means that the sky is as an ice-bound tank; i.e., it is likened to frozen water.

2,045. Lit., “how long would you make beer of this ice? how long?” Fuqā‘ gushādan or gushūdan, “to make beer,” is explained as “to boast of, to glory in”, but here, as in some passages of Khāqānī, it apparently means “to seek profit from”. The sense is that the sky or fortune is intractable, and that it is vain to try to force profit from it. It treats men in accordance with God’s preordinances.

In addition to this, it is implied in this and the next distich that the sky or fortune has a freezing or deadening effect upon the heart, which must be resisted in order that spiritual life may be gained.

The next distich, mentioned above, does not occur in the B. ed. of 1328. In place of it are two which I render as follows:

“And he who, like the sky, goes round the world, at last gives up all (he has gained) and goes.

“The vile and worthless world is lost to him; the whirling wheel as vortex whirls for him.” i.e., when the wheel, the sky, decrees him death, it is, as it were, a vortex for him in which he is engulfed.

I should render the next distich of the same edition:

“By reason of his worldly, selfish aims, he has derived no profit from his life.”

2,046. “That World of yours” is the world of spirituality.

2,047. This distich is not in the B. ed. of 1328.

2,048. Or, simply, “from death,” since the soul is considered alive only by abandoning the world and becoming endued with spirituality.

Before this distich a distich occurs in the B. ed. of 1328 which, though somewhat incorrectly printed, I take to mean,

“Beware the sword! from all that you have gained of gems and stores by effort and by toil.”

“The sword” signifies presumably that of fate or death.

If this distich be not spurious the next one must be rendered, in continuation of it,

“Withdraw your soul before you leave the world, that you may save your soul from (fear of) death.”

2,049. I have followed the B. ed. of 1328 for the position of this distich. It is less well placed in the I.O. MSS. I have consulted.

2,050. Pāya, “rank,” is the reading of the B. ed. of 1328. The I.O. MSS. have, generally, māya, “wealth.”

2,051. i.e., on villagers who cheat in selling curds and whey by giving too much whey and too little curds.

2,052. i.e., in the village, the world.

2,053. “He is graced,” bihā dārad. “(High) price,” bahā. “Integrity,” lit., “goodness,” bihī.

2,054. i.e., whether you be noble or plebeian there are many like you in the world who share in the possessions of the world. These possessions are not special to any particular person, and they pass too from one to another, so that, as intimated in the next distich, it is foolish to fix one’s heart upon any of them.

The B. ed. of 1328 has,

Dar jahān khair-i khāṣṣ-u ‘ām (for ‘āmm) basī-’st: “In the world the good things of noble and plebeian are many”; or, “In the world special and common good things are many.” But the sense of neither is so satisfactory.

2,055. “This place of snares”; i.e., the world. “Its high seats”; lit., “its pulpits.”

2,056. i.e., in aiming at high places you aim at the cross of suffering and death.

Another, an I.O. MS. reading of the first hemistich, is,

If this be not interrogative and practically equivalent to the other, the sense would be,

2,057. i.e., if a human being should reach the height of his ambition, death would ultimately claim him. “One of earth” is, I think, the most probable sense of zamīnī, which may be taken as analogous to khākī in the line,

Hast khākī ki ba-ābī na-kharad ṭūfān-rā: “There is a bit of earth (i.e., Noah) which does not reckon the Deluge (even) as a drop of water.”

2,058. Another, an I.O. MS. reading, gives “If a head should raise (its) crown up to the heavens”.

2,059. “The Seven Climes”; i.e., the whole inhabited world. (See Note 207.)

2,060. Lit., “with lowered head carrying away a headache.”

2,061. “Rude oppressive acts,” ḥaif-i lā-ubālī.

The B. ed. of 1328 has khisht-i lā-ubālī, “darts of oppression.” (See the last paragraph of Note 2,043.)

2,062. “Without a spine.” (See Notes 56 and 527.)

2,063. See Note 1,693.

2,064. “A draught of honey-wine,” or mead, nūsh-bāda-ī.

The B. ed. of 1328 has nūsh-pāra-ī, “a piece of honey.” With this reading one would render, “Who is there eats a piece of honeycomb.”

2,065. The B. ed. of 1328 reads,

dū dam-ū dar damī yakī nafas ast: “are but two moments, each one but a breath.”

2,066. “The veil of dark and light”; i.e., the world, in which things of dark and light of every description are found.

The “cowries of the ass” are an allusion to the cowries used as ornaments on the trappings of asses.

The ass on which Jesus rode is frequently alluded to by Muslim writers.

The distich occurs in this place in the B. ed. of 1328, and is better placed than in the I.O. MSS. I have consulted.

2,067. This and the following two distichs may be a prayer for the general welfare of the Author, or possibly a prayer for the success in every way of his poem.

2,068. The Author means possibly that the coin was as a reflected image of good coin, and showed all its brilliance: that, in fine, it exactly corresponded with it.

2,069. Speaking of his work as coin, the Author intimates that it passes successfully all tests.

The word “Grecian” is used to imply that his work has the merit attached to that of Grecian artists.

2,070. i.e., I have dedicated it to the king.

2,071. “The inscription”; i.e., the inscription on the coin, by which latter is meant the poem.

2,072. The Author must, I think, be alluding to his work as consisting mainly of seven stories under which deep, religious, mystical thoughts are concealed.

If even there were seven internal senses, instead of five, such meaning would scarcely be applicable, since they could scarcely all be called treasuries or storehouses of secret thought.

2,073. i.e., the key is veiled in darkness.

2,074. i.e., “I praise the king’s qualities,” the king being likened here to a date-palm=tree.

2,075. Compliments to the king on implied victories.

2,076. “The Law”; i.e., the holy Law. “Dogma is divided into two portions, uṣūl and furū‘—(i.e., roots and branches.) The former include the doctrine about God; the latter, as the name implies, consist of truths which result from the acceptance of the former. The orthodox belief is that reason has only to do with the furū‘, for the uṣūl, being founded on the Qur’ān and Sunnat, have an objective basis.” (Sell: The Faith of Islām.)

2,077. An allusion to the curve of the sky.

2,078. “The Seven Feasts” or “Seven Trays”, Haft Khvān.

The Burhān-i Qāṭi‘ says that when the king Kai-Kā’ūs had become a captive in Māzandarān, Rustam, the Persian champion, set out to deliver him. He traversed the distance in seven stages, making each stage a day’s journey. On the way he encountered demons and magicians, whom he slew; and in thanksgiving for his success in surmounting all the dangers and difficulties of each stage he held a grand feast or entertainment at the end of it. He concluded his expedition by delivering the king from captivity. (See also Notes 212 and 1,035.)

2,079. The elements were supposed to lie in four strata, the lowest being earth, the next water, the third air, and the fourth fire.

2,080. Lit., “which gives moist pearls from dry earth”; i.e., which brightens and beautifies the earth.

2,081. An allusion to its glittering.

2,082. “Mail-clad moon.” The surface of the moon somewhat resembles ring-armour.

“The ring”; i.e., either the lunar halo or the moon itself.

2,083. i.e., is protected by him.

2,084. An address to the king.

2,085. i.e., keen of intellect, and steady and deliberate in judgment.

2,086. “Your steadfast namesake”; i.e., the lion.

This distich, if not spurious, seems to indicate that the king had the honorific title of Arslān, Lion; or that he was called Arslān as being bin Arslān, the son or grandson of Arslān. He might possibly, however, have been called a second Qizil Arslān (Red Lion), but that he was not the Qizil Arslān has, I venture to say, been sufficiently shown in Note 204. (See also Notes 204 and 213.)

2,087. i.e., since I conclude it with praises of the king, which are as rubies.

2,088. This is, I think, the most probable sense of the second hemistich, dar ‘ibārat kilīd-i pur dārad.

2,089. The real meaning of this highly metaphorical distich is that as the pearl is released or unlocked, as it were, by the loosening or untying of knots on the string, so the occult meaning presented by the Author is free to that person only who has perspicuity enough to solve the difficulties of it.

2,090. In this and the following two distichs the Author alludes obscurely to his having borrowed material for his work. This is more fully dwelt upon in the Section entitled “On the cause of writing the Book”. The principal source was, of course, the Shāh-nāma of Firdausī.

2,091. Mercury is “the Scribe of the Sky” and the god of wisdom.

By “ears of corn” are meant the Author’s thoughts and contributions to learning.

2,092. When Virgo is the ascendant in a person’s nativity his ruling planet is Mercury, the ruler over Virgo. Such a person, says Alan Leo, “can criticize and analyse all that comes under his notice, as he is inclined to look on the world from an intellectual standpoint. He is also very ingenious, systematic, thoughtful, and inventive. He generally takes a philosophical view of things and knows how to discriminate.”

It should be added that the planet is as the spirit in connexion with the zodiacal sign over which it rules, and the sign is as the soul, the zodiacal mansion being as the body.

2,093. Al-qāṣṣu lā yuḥibbu ’l-qāṣṣ, an Arabic saying. But I do not remember seeing that story-telling is attributed to Virgo.

2,094. The use of the expression qanā‘at, “contented state,” or contentment, seems a hint from the Author that he will be content with whatever the king may bestow. He is entrenched, as it were, in contentment.

2,095. The term the “Brazen Fort”, Rūyīn Diz, is probably applied to the king’s court for a reason given in the next distich but five. (For an account of the Brazen Fort, see Note 1,541.)

2,096. I have translated from the reading—

Vām-dārī na az tahī-karamī; diz-i rūyīn buvad zi-bī-diramī.

But another reading is—

Vām-dārī bih az tahī-karamī: “Debt better is than want of will to give.”

And another—

Vām-dārī bih az tahī-shikamī: “Debt’s better than to have an empty stomach.”

I suppose the Author is affecting to take his image of the Brazen Fort as a reality, and implying that since it is of brass it cannot pay him in silver or gold. The only sense, I think, is that the king’s generosity to others has been so excessive that he must remain in debt to the Author.

2,097. The term “Rocky Mount” is possibly applied to the king’s dominions.

“The rubies and diamonds” are the scintillations of the king’s sword; but they are taken in the next distich as a symbol of his generosity to friends and severity to enemies.

Another reading is girīva-yi tang, “narrow pass,” a term which might be applied to the king’s dominions in respect of their inaccessibility to enemies.

2,098. The Ka‘ba is the cubical house in the temple of Mecca.

2,099. Qāf, the name of the fabulous mountain range which was supposed to encompass the earth.

2,100. I translate from the reading, dar digar ham zi-rāh-i dīda-yi ū.

The B. ed. of 1328 gives,

zar hama(h) ẕarra-yī darīda-yi ū (or, durīda-yi ū), which seems to offer no good sense.

One might suggest,

zar hama(h) ẕarra-ī ba-dīda-yi ū: “gold is nothing but a mote in its view,” but there is no authority for this.

2,101. “Mercy’s Mount” is the hill ‘Arafāt situated about 12 miles from Mecca.

“Abū Qubais” is a hill to the east of Mecca.

2,102. The “circle” is possibly still the Brazen Fort, i.e., the king’s court, by which may be symbolized the king’s dominions, which by a poetical compliment would include the whole world.

Or, the “circle” may directly mean the whole world and sky. The sense of the distich is, May the world and sky be eternal through the king! By this prayer the eternal existence of the king is prayed for.

“That high sun” means, of course, the king.

2,103. Rings worn in the ears were a badge of slavery. The allusion here is to the circle of the sky.

2,104. A compliment to the king, implying his sway over North China and Turkistan.

2,105. This would correspond with A.D. 1197.

2,106. “This, my composition”; i.e., this poem.

2,107. See Notes 274, 1,201, 1,562, and 1,698.

2,108. Ai dar-īn mulk jāvidān bādī, mulk bā ‘amr-u ‘amr bā shādī!

The B. ed. of 1328 has,

Andar-īn ‘amr jāvidān bādī, mulk bā ‘amr(w) zaid bā shādī!

Zaid in this reading would mean “increase”.

The artistic symmetry of this, however, is much inferior, and it has only the rather doubtful rhetorical merit of bringing together the names ‘Amrw and Zaid, which are used in law books for plaintiff or defendant, and in Arabic grammar to illustrate the case-endings.