Muntakhab al-tawarikh 336: CXXIV. Mīr Muḥsin Rizavī, of Mashhad.

336

He sometimes exercises his mind with poetry, and as a poet stands in the same class as Mīr Maḥmūd the Munshī, but is rather superior to him. The following verses are by Muḥsin:—
“I do not desire her to be kind to me before strangers, For I fear lest a stranger should see her and be captivated by her.”
“One of stature like the cypress and with a mouth like a rose-bud has stolen my heart, In the flower of my youth she has disgraced me before the world.”
“O thou, the plant of whose graceful form, is fresh with the water of life, The cypress is overcome with shame before thy stature.”
I prefer the word shādāb (‘well-watered’) to khurram (‘fresh’) in the first hemistich.
“Cup-bearer, how long shall we dilate on What we have suffered from fate? Fill the cup, that we may for an hour free our hearts of grief.”
Towards the end of his life he gave up the profession of arms, resigned his appointment, and retired into the corner of seclusion. How well would it have been with him had he also given up the writing of poetry! His death occurred in Agra, in A.H. 979 (A.D. 1571-72).