Taj al-maʾathir 1.18

1.18

was being scattered to the wind...
And it was expected that for every distress and catastrophe a remedy and improvement would appear, and the course
of affairs would return to its initial order and arrangement, and leisure, prosperity, tranquility, and safety would show their faces,
and the rust of sorrow and distress would be removed from before the mirror of the heart's desire, and the form of the desired end
would emerge from the knot of concealment, and the banners of peace and safety would be accepted throughout the lands of Khurāsān,
and the passage of the current circumstances would return to the purity of the past era. But on the contrary, the army of sorrow and
calamity brought sudden affliction; the avenues of security became infested with the inroads of ruin and disaster; the entanglement of
affairs grew worse with the distress of the situation; ease and peace departed from the midst of the people;
the face of the bride of comfort was veiled behind the screen of seclusion; and the cheeks of security and safety remained
behind the curtains of suspension.
Through the upheavals and reverses of the times, order and arrangement were lifted away, and by the disruption of the days,
every form of favor took on the aspect of treachery, and the heart, amid the vicissitudes of afflictions and
calamities, became utterly captive and bound; and whenever an unwholesome and perverse fancy
spread its wings, misfortune resulted. Every day a new fruit of sedition sprang from the orchard of the celestial sphere,
and every moment a fresh calamity arose anew from the revolution of the heavens. From observing this circumstance, the path of
patience narrowed, and the bird of the spirit in the cage of the chest began to flutter and throb, and the heart grew weary of life
from the enmity of adversaries and the hostility of enviers; and out of utter helplessness, the reins