Basatin al-uns 68.291

68.291

میاه لو طرحت بها لجنبا ومشهها لمیرت انتقادا و دام وافر استحکام که به جهت بند جانور آبی همه تن چشم گشته بود زیر آب فرو میبرد و با انواع حیوانات مشحون و مالامال که عدد آن را چون فطرت باران سر بالا نتوان کرد برمی آورد، چون از شکار مراجعت نمود آهویی در اثنای راه افتاده دید و قفس تنش از مرغ جان خالی یافت، او را هوا و هوس بر آن آورد که روح خود را در تن آهو اندازد، تا حالات آن را در جست و خاست دریابد که چگونه است و آن علم شریف را عین الیقین بیند، چون جثهٔ‌ خویش را از روح خالی کرد، آهو در جستن آمد و بههر طرف میدوید و جوانب و اطراف صحرا را پی به سر می گردانید، وزیر را خیال ملک در سر افتاد و تمنای سری و آرزوی سروری عقل او را بپوشید تا خاک در چشم مروت انداخت و داغ کفران نعمت بر جبین نهاد و هم از کوی او خاست و هم بر روی او خاست، چون ابر که بهمدد تربیت و مهر خورشید از حضیض خاک تیره سراپردهآ رفعت و علو در صحرای هوای روشن زند و بعد از آن که قطرهآ آبی از چرخ سیاه کاسه بر جگر نداشت خزائن جواهر آبدار در قبضهآ تصرف آرد، باز به باعثهآ عرق خسیس و اصل و نی از تیرگی باطن و سبک سایگی به معارضه بر روی آفتاب برآید و چشم جهانبین او را از نظاره سواد گلشن گیتی محجوب گرداند، و بهنقاب کحلی و حجاب اغبر طلعت عالم افروز او را از دیدهٔ‌ جهان بین مستور کند و چهرهٔ‌ نور افشان او را از نور گستری مانع گردد و هر لحظه و هر زمان بهدست کین خنجر یمانی برق کمان رستم بر روی او کشد و از رعد صور هیت نعرهٔ‌ مخاصمت و بانگ محاربت بهسوی او برآرد، فی الحال وزیر روح پلید خود را در تن پاک ولی نعمت خویش دراورد و تن خود را بهزخم تیغ پاره پاره گردانید و بند از بند جدا کرد، چنانچه قابل قبول حمایت نماند و بر سبیل مسارعت در قصر دولت یادشاه آمد و بدین طلسم و نیرنگ مملکت در ضبط اورد و پادشاه را حرمی بود روح افزا نام، چون حرکات و سکنات و اقوال و افعال او برخلاف آنچه از پادشاه معاینه کرده

Waters which, if you were to cast [...] into them, / and touch them, would reveal themselves to scrutiny;
and he would submerge beneath the water a exceedingly strong net that had become all eyes for trapping aquatic creatures,
and would bring it out packed and brimming with diverse kinds of animals whose number, like the downpour of rain, could not be reckoned.
When he returned from hunting, along the way he saw a deer lying down, and found the cage of its body emptied of the bird
of its soul. Passion and caprice moved him to cast his own soul into the deer's body, so that he might perceive its states
in leaping and bounding, how it was, and witness that noble science with the eye of certainty. When
he emptied his own frame of its soul, the deer began to leap and ran about in every direction, traversing the limits and
expanses of the plain back and forth. The thought of sovereignty entered the vizier's head, and the desire for supremacy and the longing
for lordship blinded his intellect, so that he threw dust into the eye of chivalrous virtue, placed the brand of ingratitude upon his brow,
and both rose from his lane and rose against him—like a cloud that, through the fostering aid and love of the sun,
pitches the pavilion of elevation and loftiness from the abyss of dark earth into the plain of the luminous sky, and after it had not possessed
a drop of water in its liver from the miserly heaven, takes hold of treasuries of lustrous gems; then, prompted by
its base descent and mean origin, out of inner darkness and fleeting shadow, rises in opposition against the face of the sun,
and veils its world-beholding eye from contemplating the dark expanse of the garden of the world, and with a kohl-dark veil and a dust-colored
curtain conceals its world-illuminating countenance from the world-seeing eye, preventing its light-shedding face from spreading
light; and every moment and every hour, with the hand of malice, draws across its face the Yemenite dagger [flashing like] the lightning of Rustam's bow,
and from the thunderous forms raises toward it the roar of strife and the clamor of war. Forthwith,
the vizier transferred his impure soul into the pure body of his benefactor, cut his own body to pieces with the strike of a sword,
and separated limb from limb so that it was no longer capable of receiving life; and with all haste he entered
the palace of imperial fortune, and by this talisman and trickery brought the kingdom under his control. Now the king had a consort
named Rūḥ-afzā. When she saw that his movements, gestures, words, and actions were contrary to what she had witnessed from the king,