Muntakhab al-tawarikh 356: CXLIII. MAHWĪ.

356

Shortly after his arrival in Hindustan he was in the service of the Khānkhānān, son of Bairām Khān, and then went on a pilgrimage to the glorious city of Makkah. In the composition of quatrains he has no equal. The following quatrains are his:—
“So long as the ringlet falls over the moonlike face, So long as the down on the cheek is as an army to the king of beauty, Even if my house is built of bricks from the sun The days of me in my wretchedness will pass in black misery.”
“Once I knew not sorrow of the soul and the heart, Once I knew not what it was to weep tears of fire; Now thou hast left neither name nor trace of me, O love! I did not know that thou wert thus!”
Mahwī, who has wandered far from the street of wisdom, Has become a greater wanderer than a thousand Majnūns. I saw from afar that lost one, wandering far from thee, In a wilderness where the wind entered into his blood.”
The steed of perception cannot traverse the valley of thy understanding.
The noose of imagination cannot reach the battlements of the palace of thy glory.
I have a word to say : I will expound it unto the Nawwab.
I have a difficulty : I will represent it to his servants.
346 Thou hast given the high post of accountant To Kucik Beg. Say for what reason, O boast of mankind.
Thou art perhaps ignorant of his reprehensible acts, Although inquiry into the characters of servants is a duty incumbent on governors.
He was an infamous boy, and conceited, a wine-bibbing libertine.
A lad ever hankering after gold, soft, and self-willed.
His business was the service of Khwaja Amir Beg the Vazlr.
Factor to the family of His Highness Mirza Bahram.
Other things are known about him from a certain source.
But I feel ashamed to reveal them before his honour the Khan.
To cut a long story short and to make an end quickly I will come to my tale.
And I will tell a tale regarding that mutilated wretch.
Wherever he has been his conduct has been such That he has brought upon himself the hatred of all, both gentle and simple. and inherited accomplishments. After many years of such acquaintance as can exist between men at a distance from one another, I was so fortunate as to have a chance meeting with him in the neighbourhood of the town of Bari in the year in which the victorious army set out for the conquest of the fortress of Citor, but owing to the shortness of the time at our disposal our interview and conversation, in spite of the great desire which I had to prolong them, did not last an hour, and he went on and I returned, but when I first set eyes on him I became aware of the nobility of his character. Although, considering his dignity, this mention of him among a string of poets is scarcely gracious, yet, as he sometimes amused himself with poetry, this opening couplet is quoted as a memorial of him:—
“If, in the day of my grief for thee, I should choose to exercise patience, Since I have no choice in the matter say what I should do.”