Muntakhab al-tawarikh 268: LV. SHAHĪ.

268

This is the poetical name of the Khānzamān. As the events of his life are well known, not only from this selection, but from every history of Hindustan, any further account of him would be merely a repetition. He wrote these verses:—
“Slender as a hair is thy waist, No wider than the end of that hair is thy mouth.”
When he published abroad the ode which begins thus, many of the poets of that province wrote odes to compete with it. One began as follows:—
“I said, ‘Thy mouth is no more substantial than an idea,’ She said, ‘The idea that thou hast formed is correct.’
I composed the following:—
“Thy mouth is the fountain of Khizr, Thy tongue is a fish in that fountain.”
In these days I prefer to repent sincerely of such poetry and versification, which I published freely in the days of my ignorance, but which now appear to me to be a vain accomplishment.
The following verses are by the Khanzaman : —
“ Cease, my heart, from weeping and wailing continually like a hell, Make, my heart, to none complaint of the cruelty of thy love.”
“ O breeze, in the court of my love, in that language which thou knowest Make my supplication before her, as thou canst.”
“I have a charmer whose face is like the rose, and like hyacinths her hair, Her rippling locks of hyacinth fall over rose-petals.”
“My love, the darling of no other is like thee, No other lover is distracted like me.”
“ O infidel boy, we drink no cup at thy hands We are drunk from another cup, with the wine of ‘Am I not your Lord ?’”
The Khanzaman’s brother, Bahadur Khan, also had some poetic genius, and wrote an ode which is reproduced below on the theme of that ode of Mulla Asifi’s which begins: —
“The night of grief has much embittered my lot Where is the morning? For rust has settled on my mirror.”
Bahadur Khan’s ode.
“The wanton, cruel charmer has taken a stone in his hand, As though he would attack me, the weary one. My moon-faced darling sits on the throne of beauty, He is a king, seated on his throne. Without thee, Bahadur, they will not cease from their wailing and their wine-bibbing For they have taken from thee the flute of grief.”
In accordance with the saying, “the words of kings are the kings of words,” this appears to be a sufficiency of the poetry of these two.