Muntakhab al-tawarikh 27: QASĪDA.
Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh (Ranking, Lowe, Haig) 27
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QASĪDA.
27.1
My eye is the boundless ocean, the thought of my heart is a bark,
In sorrow my bark sets forth on the floods as they flow from my eyes.
Night and day I float in the flood of tears, how can my bark live in the midst of the raging billows of blood?
How can I expect to win my desire from the vile world?
How can I launch my bark on the surface of a gutter?
Although my bark in this ocean, now sails on and now lies at rest, sailing with the seven sails, and resting on the four anchors.
Of what use to me are those sails and those anchors, If my bark is suddenly overwhelmed by the billows of death?
In this age I sought fidelity from the tyrannical, Who has ever seen a boat on the Jihūn in the mouth of Mehrgan?
In front of the claws of this crab and the revolution of the nine heavens, loosen thy four anchors and then launch thy bark.
The sea-monster of avarice of my soul turns back, otherwise one might drag the boat to the shore by some contrivance.
With the exception of the philosopher’s how can anyone guide the ship out of the whirlpool of this world to its final haven of refuge.
Do not set thy heart upon the ebony like world, because a ship built of ebony is overwhelmed in the sea of this worthless world.
Do not seek for safety when loaded with boastfulness, for an overloaded ship is speedily wrecked.
Seek security from sorrow at that time when you have been wise enough to make, as I have, a ship from the planks of the praise of thy lord.
27.2
The centre of kingship of land and sea Taju 'l-Haqq, who made a ship of safety for traversing the ocean (Qulzum) of sorrow.
Sinjar who is like the sky in dignity, in fear of whom sedition navigated its ship in the direction of the crossing of the ocean of Qairawan.
Needs must that with those two love fascinated eyes, The sun should endeavour to protect himself from the snares of thy locks.
When the story of thy fragrant tresses reached him, The curtailed his mention of the bag of musk.
He suffered from the effects of the intoxication of thine eyes, And he got rid of his headache by drinking of the cup of the assembly of the world-subduer.
The auspicious lion, protector of the crown of true religion, Sinjar, In whose estimation the fierce lion of the sky is but a stag.
The stag thought right to carry a fragrant ball of camphor taken from the dust of his threshold, to Egypt, as a memorial.
Perhaps it was from the dust of his dignity which became the ornament of the sun, that the stag obtained superiority over the wild beasts by reason of his musk-bag.
Happy art thou star-arrowed one, whom the demon-hearted fear and shun as the stag avoids the lion.
An enemy who falls into thy clutches does not escape; Who has ever known the stag to escape from the claws of the lion?
At that time the stag prided himself upon being fleeter than thy charger, now in sooth the stag is ashamed of his slow-footedness.
27.3
At the time of attack, how can the stag in spite of all his efforts, reach the dust which is thrown up by thy charger’s hoofs?
Think it not strange if from the abundance of his bounty, the lynx goes slowly on foot, and the stag swiftly like a horseman.
‘Twixt thine eyelids reigns a Sultan, Helpless, lo! I bow before him.
This comparison of the mole on a cheek to grains of musk is one of the commonest similes among Persian poets.
Compared with the fragrance of thy goodness how can the stag boast of the dried blood of his navel in Tatar.
By the aid of thy words which are like an antidote, I have no fear, even though the stag shall become like to one that feeds on snakes
His food is the snake, but afterwards like the elk, besides the antidote, the stag offers in every direction the bag of musk.
In the land in which thou art, by reason of thy great justice the lynx sits sorrowful, and the stag stands to comfort him
The day that thou pursuest him he shows only his right shoulder when the stag rushes from the right to the left of thy army.
In reliance upon thee if a stag were to cherish a young lion in its bosom it would be no wonder
What power have two hundred enemies against thy prowess ?
What does the hunting leopard think of a herd of thousand stags ?
Thy enemy will be able to engage in conflict with thee
At that time when the stag’s horns are capable of fighting the lion.
In the meadow of thy favour the stag has never seen his quarters and sides as thin as his legs.
27.4
Conqueror of the world, I have bound “The stag” with thirty-three couplets in thy praise by way of experiment as though it were a camel.
It is fitting that the word “musk deer” should be repeated as many a hundred times since thou hast sent me in thy kindness a stag twice.
Formerly the stag thought of nothing but the musk-bag, now he makes the glory of thy praise his constant occupation.
‘Amid has opened the musk-bag of wisdom in singing thy praises, like the musk-bag upon which the stag prides itself.
Always, as long as men search for musk on the surface of the ground, and no musk deer lays aside its power of producing musk,
May the perfection of thy justice reach such a height that the stag may extract musk from the hunting leopard.
Mayest thou roam at large and enjoy thyself in the meadow of fortune, just as the stag roams over the meadows in spring time.
Fasting has made his form which was like the Narwan slender as a reed, and has made his face which was red as the Arghawan pale like the saffron.
How can it be saffron for it has not made me smile? Fasting has made my cheek yellow like the Zair through weeping, and my tears red as the Arghawan.
How can it be a tulip, for fasting makes his cheek like the Khiri?
How can it be a cypress, when fasting makes it weak and tremulous?
Haply she has hung the amulet on her silvery mouse-like neck, so that Wisdom like a fasting cat has been compelled to remain fasting:
27.5
My tongue has become dry like that of one fasting in advising her:
For thy form is like a fresh blown rose, fasting is the autumn wind (which withers it):
Although thou openest thy lips like a bud which had been closed by fasting, just as I broke my fast at the table of the praise of my Lord,
The ocean of benevolence, champion of the truth, round the table of whose bounty men and genii broke their fast,
Muhammad whose vanguard is like destiny, the joints of whose spear broke their fast with the blood of the enemies (trickling down) from the point:
He, whose right hand is like that of Isfandiyar, has also, from the liberality of his hand, caused the age to break its fast on this side of the seven stages:
Before the generosity of his heart, the ocean and the mine, have, in their utter poverty, considered fasting to be their bounden duty:
Hail O King, in whose just reign the wolf, as though it were a shepherd, has kept its fast to secure the safety of the flock:
Thou art like the two first fingers, a close companion of the heavens, just as fasting goes hand in hand with prayer:
Thy existence is the twin brother of kingdom, just as fasting is the twin brother of Zakat, Hajj and 'Umrah:
A lip more alluring than the seed of the pomegranate,
A tongue far sweeter than the whitest sugar:
At the smell of the table of thy piety the year has continual increase of him, whether in the day or in the night, to fast from food of all kinds;
27.6
The ear of thy marrow has fed, like the ear of Nimrod on the brain of thy enemy in the brain of the (threshing-floor of vapour).
For the maintenance of thy kingdom, young and old have fasted, both the old and the new generation,
The revolution of this nine-domed world is full of the mention of thy glory, just as fasting fills the seven members of the body in this day-bazaar.
On this earth, the world’s children (have fasted) with such endurance that the spiritual beings will never be able to break the fast.
I stood before thee with my loins girt in honest service, as though fasting, because fasting is not one of my objects, neither openly nor in secret.
My manliness actuated by ambition bowed the knee to me and said,
Imagine that both your pen and your finger tips are fasting.
The claims of thy generosity caused me to break my fast and consume my time, had it not been for that I would have speedily imposed a fast upon my words.
Had not the praise of thee been the sustenance of my powers of speech how could the point of my tongue have broken its fast by breaking into poetry?
Like the parrot, my first morning food is the sugar of gratitude to thee, not like the humā do I break my fast upon bones.
Who is able to break his fast in this way at the time of bringing in the "radīf" better than ‘Amīd, with the draught of trial.
He has broken his fast with a feather from the wing of the bird of praise, because at this time fasting is the best nest for the bird of praise.
27.7
Always, as long as fasting brings as its reward from the bounty and mercy of God, a hidden treasure worth a hundred princely treasures,
Mayest thou be famed for generosity and kindness in this world, for fasting points the way to the highest heaven.