Muntakhab al-tawarikh 31.10

31.10

This is the changeableness of the ancient heaven, At one time it is like a bow at another like an arrow ; At one time it feeds you with kindness at another poisons you with enmity. This is an example of the custom of the revolving heaven. We learn from the Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi that Sultan Mu‘izzu-d-Din, after the capture of the Shahzada, was seized while sitting in durbar during that revolt of the populace, and was bound, and died in captivity of hunger and thirst : in the course of his sufferings he wrote this quatrain, The horse of my excellence has been left far behind on the plain. The hand of my generosity has fallen between the hammer and the anvil. My eye which used to see the gold of the mine and the invisible jewel To-day alas ! is blinded for lack of bread. And when the tumult between Itimar Surkha and the people of Dihli subsided, and Shayista Khan had gained his heart’s desire and seated the prince upon the throne, and had set the affairs of the kingdom going again, on the second day after this, Sultan Mu‘izzu-d-Din bade farewell to this transitory & unstable The duration of the kingdom of Shamsu-d-Din Kai Kaus was three months and a few days. The wine of the sky is not unmixed with the brine of sorrow, The world’s one employment is jugglery — naught else.