Muntakhab al-tawarikh 302: XCIV. ‘URFĪ OF SHĪRĀZ.

302

He was a high-minded young man of sound understanding and he composed poetry of all kinds well, but he became so puffed up Mahvi composed the following quatrain:— “Mahvi, whose heart is near to all men, Is near to the bud of the garden and to its thorns and rubbish. For this reason he was not repulsed from the litter of the beloved, That the sound of his weeping resembles the sound of its bell.”
Hakim ‘Ain ul-Mulk composed the following in answer to both quatrains:— “Since thy Beloved is near thee every moment, Beware, for thy fire is near the dry grass! O thou who hast fallen behind thy companions and lost the way, Hasten, for the sound of the caravan’s bell is near.”
Mulla ‘Abdi composed the following quatrain and also wrote it, as a keepsake in my commonplace book, and our companionship in prayer was changed for separation:— “The freedom of this caged bird is near at hand, And this flame is near to the thorns and stubble, Grief would fly from me with a thousand wings and pinions, Did it but know with whom it consorted.”
I wonder at my own hardness of heart, seeing that I am able to sit and beat my breast with a stone in the absence of so many friends.