Muntakhab al-tawarikh 304: XCV. GHAZNAVI.

304

He is Mir Muhammad Khan-i-Kalan, who is well-known by reason of his high rank and position. His assemblies were always attended by learned men and poets. In spite of his constant employment in administrative business he found time occasionally to indulge in the customary recreation of writing verses, and collected a large divan of his poems. He used to say to the Emperor, ‘The boast of your reign is this, that a man like me has lived in it.’
The following verses are his:—
“In my youth the flower of my age was passed in ignorance, And what was left of it has been passed in repentance. Young man, thou hast sown nothing but the seed of despair in the world, Now the season of old age is come, and the time for tillage is past.”
“Go Ghaznavi, associate with the dogs of the beloved, Be content with a dry crust and make thyself independent of the world, Take the crown of pride from thy head and pass beyond the stage of ‘we’ and ‘I,’
“Step not beyond the bounds of ignorance, or else become a Plato, A middle course is a mirage with raging thirst.”
The opening couplet of the ode from which the last couplet is taken is as follows —
“My conversation in society consists of muttered speeches, For here those reputed sensible are ignorant, and my speech is Arabic.”
The following couplets are also by him —
“How shall I endure my desire for my beloved, for, by the laws of love A mere glance is disrespect and a thought of the beloved is derogatory to her.”
“Of what pain has it been decreed by Time that I should die, That the eyes of my soul have not gone forth to welcome?”
“I speak no word, for silence is better than speech, I have no knowledge, for oblivion is better than knowledge.”
“The Ka'bah would have circled round thy head and circumvolated it Had it had but pinions and wings.”
Khan and the next morning news came that he had been seized with colic in the place of public prayer in Sambhal on the ‘Id-i-Qurban, and had sickened suddenly, and in the flower of his youth had surrendered his soul to God, His bier was brought into Badaon. Some mention has been made of this event in the record of the reign, and besides (the chronograms there given) the words ‘Ah, Jamal Khan has died!’ were found to give the date of his death.
In these days whom have the heavens seated in safety Whose existence they did not cut short like the morning’s light?