Muntakhab al-tawarikh 341: CXXX. Maili of Hirat.
Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh (Ranking, Lowe, Haig) 341
- Language
- English
CXXX. Maili of Hirat.
341.1
His name was Mirza Quli. He left a divan and was a master of poetical style. His taste in poetry was such that if he had lived till now most of the raw poetasters of to-day would have grown sick of trafficking in verse, and from the time in which he flourished until now none of our later versifiers can be mentioned beside him. He was for many years in the service of Naurang Khan, and wrote several brilliant encomiastic odes on him. It is said that on account of some suspicion against him something was at last, by order of Naurang Khan, put into his cup, and that he was thus sent from the world. His death took place in Malwa. The following verses are by him : — qasidahs, as the Salman of the age, but this is a great mistake, for his conceits suffer, to an extraordinary degree, from two defects common to the poets of Transoxiana, and are all frigid. He came twice to Hindustan and left the country again. The following are some of his most pointed verses:—
Since all the cash that Majnun had to show for his life was his grief for his beloved, May God pardon him in consideration of this cash, for he loved much!
“For loving I have found myself much blamed, I thought love an easy matter, but it proved to be difficult.”
“Since the meadow each night alight in the garden the lamp of the rose The tulip’s petal has burst into flame and both the petal and the black scar on it have been consumed.”
341.2
He had a subtle tongue in satire, and one of his witty satires was this fragment which he composed on the occasion of his last visit to India:—
“The land of Ind is a sugar field, Its parrots all sell sugar. Its black Hindus are like flies In their turbans and long coats.”
The following verses also are by him :
“I, with wounded heart, am a half-dead victim of the chase, whom The hunter in his pity quickly slays.”
“My beloved desires my death for her ease, and I With shame bear the burden of my weary life.”
“I have made thee, as my beloved, a byword, and I rejoice In thy shame, for thou now wilt cast no glances on men.”
“What ill fortune is Maili’s, to experience nothing but cruelty at her hands! She is but a child, who cannot distinguish between cruelty and fidelity.”
“I am alone with my broken heart, and I gladly entrust it to thee: Of what use will it be to me, that I should keep it? O my enemy! I am at my last breath, give her to me for a moment That I may restore her to thee with a hundred thousand pangs.”
“In spite of her slights I would not arise at once from her feast. For if I remain I hope to be glad for a moment at least: After long years I am sitting, on some pretence, at her feast And she speaks to me of my rival, hoping that I will leave.”
“Thou surely knowest that love for thee does not depart with life, That thou walkest thus proudly over the dust of those killed (by love).”
341.3
“Thou art neither my friend nor a stranger, and I know not What name is given to such intercourse as this.”
“My heart is restless within my body which has been slain by love; I know not what more it expects from my beloved; It describes as ‘proving’ the cruelty which it suffers from thee, And by this artifice persuades itself to patience for awhile.”
“My life is about to leave me and I am well pleased with this, for my heart Has now some hope of a remedy for its many years of pain.”
“In thy absence I do not die, lest thy heart should say, ‘This weakling who has not experienced my cruelty could not endure my absence for a day or two.’”
“Although she came to ask how I fared I died, In jealous wonder as to who it was from whom she asked the way to my house.”
“I die and have pity for those who live, for thou Art accustomed to committing such cruelty as thou hast done unto me.”
Some people read rashk (‘jealousy’) for rahm (‘pity’) in this last couplet. The distinction between the two is for such as have a nice discrimination in the matter of words.
“If anybody has brought about a meeting between my love and me Her anger with me has certainly made him ashamed of what he has done for me. The good news of a meeting with her, which the stranger in ridicule gave me, Has made me, in my simplicity, expectant of its fulfilment.”
341.4
So long as there remains between us, even in secret, any talk of ‘me and thee’ A stranger is at our feast, sitting between thee and me; Thou through modesty enterest not into speech, and I, in bashfulness, refrain Wondering how the jealous wretches represent what we would say.”
“She came upon me by accident, and pretended that she had remembered her promise; She hung her head, and pretended that she did so in modesty.”
In the following verse he has imitated the compiler of the Muntakhab:
“The sky desired to vex the people, and consequently Availed itself of the ill-will of her who torments us.”