Muntakhab al-tawarikh 284: LXXII. SALIHI.

284

He came from Hirat and has good taste both in poetry and in prose composition. He is somewhat studious and writes a good hand. He was for some time employed as one of the secretaries, and then returned to his native land. He wrote the following couplet: —
“In the night of separation from thee, in my eye-sockets The blood from my liver was so congealed that sleep could not enter them.”
This was written in imitation of the following couplet of Amir Khusrav’s: —
“I fenced my eyes in with a thorn-hedge of eyelashes In order that neither thy image might leave them nor sleep find entrance.”
The following are other verses by Salihi: —
“With my two eyes, red with weeping during the grief of the night of separation, What shall I do, for these will be the roses of the day when we meet? I have neither desire nor strength to associate with the rose, that I should roam in the rose-garden, And the scent of the roses suggests to me only unfaithfulness. Like the dogs I have taken my place at thy threshold In order that my rival may not enter in the guise of a beggar.” to him and a disgrace to me He is mentioned as a Mullā of good understanding, of pleasant speech, and full of apposite learning After many vicissitudes he came to India, and having devoted his attention to the successions of self styled saints in this country, set most of them by the ears By the aid of the divine guidance he was led to make a pilgrimage to the sacred house of God, and the other holy places, and in the year A.H. 978 (A.D. 1570 71) he returned and set out for his native country, but Mirzā Muḥammad Ḥakīm desired him to sojourn in Kābul and began to study under him At present he is living, honoured and respected, in Transoxiana, where he is engaged in teaching and lecturing He has good taste in poetry and a sublime imagination He has written a dīvān These verses are by him:—
“My heart is lost and nobody can tell me whither it is gone, Thy ruby lip is laughing, my suspicion rests on thee”
“There is no resting place but thy door for my wandering heart, I said I would stray from thy door, but my heart would not depart”
“Thou hast returned like the sun from thy journey, O thou with a face like the moon! Thou wentest away beautiful, and hast returned most beautiful”
“O thou with a face like the rose, I desire not to see thee like the snuff of a candle, in every assembly, I desire not to see thee inclining, like the rose branch, in every direction”
“Since my head was severed by that dagger of cruelty It remains, weltering in blood, in one place, and my sad heart in another. Love, whether in separation or in union, is a source of pain; Khusrav bewails his love in one place and Farhad his in another.”