Muntakhab al-tawarikh 210.2

210.2

But the idea developed in this couplet very much resembles that which is the motive of the following couplet by Mulla Fasih of Kabul: — “It is not the burning fever of separation from thee which has induced me to choose the dust for a bed, Rather is it that my bed has been burnt to ashes by the ardent fever which possesses me, sick with my longing for thee.” When Mulla Qasim was told that most of his poetical ideas were stolen from others, he used to reply, “I have never asked you to believe that my poems were wholly my own. If they please you not, take a pen-knife, and erase them from the copies of my divan.” He has an excellent qasidah on the astrolabe, which runs on into an encomium on the late emperor, Humayun. His copiousness of diction is well exemplified therein. When Kh’aja Mu'azzam Khan, notwithstanding his lameness, came to visit Mulla Qasim-i-Kahi in his sickness, the Mulla composed the following extempore ode on the event, setting it to music at the same time: — “Thou did’st halt in affected disdain one pace from the face of my longing, May thy foot never pain thee more, my graceful cypress! Howmuchsoever I recounted, in the night of separation, the joys of thy presence, The tale of my long-drawn-out grief was not lessened.”