"The splendour of monarchy, once, I possessed;
By the head-dress of greatness my temples were pressed.
The sky gave assistance and Vict'ry was pleased;
With the arm of Good Fortune, I Babylon seized.
I had cherished a longing to conquer Kirman,1
But the worms ate my head and so thwarted my plan.
From your mind's lug, the cotton of negligence clear!
For advice from the dead now arrives at your ear."
On Doing Good and Evil, and the Result.
A man who does good has no evil to fear;
No person does evil that good may appear.
The promoters of sin, also, wickedly roam,
Like scorpions, that seldom get back to their home.
If your nature is such that it benefits none;
The jewel and stone, in like manner are one.
I am wrong, oh companion, of temp'rament sweet!
In a face, stone and iron, you profit will meet.
Such a man's better dead than enduring the shame,
That a stone can than him greater excellence claim.
Not each son sprung from Adam surpasses the beast;
For a brute is less vile than a villain, at least.
A man who is wise, leaves the beast far behind-
Not the being who, brute-like, attacks his own kind.
When a man knows of eating and sleeping alone,
Over beasts, in what way is his excellence shown?
From the ill-fated horseman, who galloped astray,
The footman, in walking, the prize bore away.
1 Kirman means worms, and Caramania, famous for its steel.
Kirman is the name of the capital of
There is a play on the word Kirmān.
No person has sown generosity's seed,
Who reaps not, in harvest, befitting his need.
I never have heard, since my lifetime began,
That goodness comes forth to reward the bad man.
(OF AN OPPRESSING CHIEF).
Down a well, once, had fallen a champion of fame,
From whose dread the male tiger a tigress became.
An ill-wisher of men, nought but evil could see;
He fell; and observed none more helpless than he.
The night-long, from wailing and weeping, awake;
Some one battered his head with a stone, and thus spake :—
"Did you ever the wrongs of a person redress,
That to-day you are asking for aid in distress?
You have sown all the seed, in atrocity steeped ;
Take a look at the fruit you've in consequence reaped!
To your soul, sad and wounded, who salve would apply,
When hearts from your wounding still, suffering, cry?
Since you dug for our service a pit in the way,
Down into a well you have fallen, to-day."
Two people dig wells for the high and the low;
One of good disposition, the other a foe.
One to moisten the throats of the thirsty, withal;
The other that people down headlong may fall.
If you sin, do not hope any goodness to see!
For grapes will not grow from a Tamarisk tree!
Oh you who in Autumn your barley will sow,
I don't think you'll reap wheat when the time comes to mow!
If the thorny Zakum with your life you should train,
Do not think that a quince from its boughs you'll obtain !
The rare, luscious date, or the colocynth fruit ;
In the seed which you scatter, your hope you should put.
(OF HAJĀJ1 AND THE RIGHTEOUS MAN).
Of one of the God-fearing people, they say
That he did not respect to Hajaj-Yusuf pay.
He gave the court headsman a look of command,
Saying, "Spread out his leather and sprinkle his sand!"*
When argument fails the tyrannical wight,
He draws up his face into wrinkles, for fight.
The godly man smiled, and then wept bitter tears;
The hard-hearted dullard astonished appears.
When Hajaj saw him smile and again saw him cry,
He asked, "Why these smiles and these tears in your eye?"
He replied, "I am weeping, for Fate's at my door,
And of helpless young children, I'm bringing up four.
I smile, that by favour of God, the most pure,
I die the oppressed, not the heartless pursuer."
Some one said, "Oh illustrious king of the land,
Beware! and withdraw from this peasant your hand!
For a fam❜ly in him have their succour and stay ;
It is wrong that a tribe, all at once, you should slay.
Magnanimity, pardon, and kindness pursue !
Keep the innocent age of his children in view!
Perhaps you've become your own family's foe,
Since, when harm comes to families, pleasure you show!
1 Hajāj, a notorious tyrant who ruled over Arabian Irāk, under the caliph Abdul-Malik, A.D. 685.
2 When a person was to be executed he knelt on a skin of leather sprinkled over with sand to soak up the blood.
Do not think that with hearts sorely scorched by your brand,
When the 'last day' arrives you will justified stand!
The oppressed has not slept; of his sobs have a care!
Of the sighs of his heart in the morning, beware!
You fear not lest one of the holy, one night,
From his hot, burning liver should cry, 'Lord, requite !''
In passion he flourished his hands on him, so,
That the arguing hand of Hajaj was bound low.
Did not Satan do ill and no good on him smiled?
Pure fruit will not spring from a seed that's defiled.
In the season of war, tear not any one's screen!
For to you may belong some dishonour, unseen.
Against tiger-like men do not enter the lists,
When you cannot prevail over boys with your fists!
I have heard that he list not and caused him to die;
From the orders of God, who can know how to fly?
At night, a wise man in that thought went to bed,
And saw in a dream the poor martyr, who said :—
"His torture of me, in a moment was passed;
But torture on him, till the 'Judgment' will last.”
A person was giving advice to his son :
"The counsels of those who are wise, do not shun!
Oh son! do not trample on those who are small!
For a giant, some day, on your own head may fall.
Oh short-witted boy! do you feel no dismay,
Lest a tiger should tear you to pieces some day?
In the days of my youth I was pow'rful in arm,
And the hearts of my subjects through me suffered harm.
I encountered a blow from one strong among men,
And the weak have not felt my oppression again."
(ON THE RESPONSIBILITY OF rulers).
Take care, lest you carelessly slumber! for sleep
Is forbid to the chief, with the tribe in his keep.
Take care, that the grief of your subjects you share!
And fear, lest the vengeance of Time you should bear!
Advice that, devoid of self-int'rest, one sees,
Is like drugs that are bitter, repelling disease.
(OF THE KING AFFLICTED WITH TAPEWORM).
Of one of the monarchs, a tale they relate,
Who by worms was reduced to a spindle-like state.
His weakness of body had lowered him, so,
That he envied the meanest of those who are low.
Though the king has a name that is famous in chess,
When weakness arrives, than the pawn he is less.
A courtier saláámed1 to the monarch, and said :—
"May the life of the sov'reign for ever be sped!
There lives in this city a man of blest life—
Among men who are pious, his peers are not rife,—
Not a person his burden before him has brought,
Who, at once, has not gained the intention he sought.
Bid him come! that a suitable pray'r he may try ;
For mercy descends to the earth from the sky."
1 Saláámed here means that he kissed the ground before the king.
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