Muntakhab al-tawarikh 44.3.3

44.3.3

All good fortune is till death and no longer, In the dust one man is no better than another. When a drop is thrown into the river It cannot again be recognized. The nature of the Heavens is to overthrow, It is of no use to oppose the decree of Fate. Who knows with the blood of what hearts This stirred up dust has been mixed? Every road, if the wise man is not blinded, Is the hide of the elk, and shagreen from the wild ass. Among the poets of the reign of Fīrūz Shāh and his boon companions, is Malik Aḥmad, the son of Amīr Khusrau, may God have mercy upon him, and although there is no famous anthology of his, still there are some imitations of the writings of the earlier poets which are entered in the writings of some of the learned men, and are well-known. Among them is an imitation of this poem of Zahīr: [Arabic/Persian text] Hail! thou whose cap of empire snatched in its exaltation the cap of empire of the heaven, by craftiness. And it is said that in the first hemistich we should read [Arabic/Persian text] Hail to thee! the blow of whose wrath, in thy supreme power and in place of (snatched) in the last hemistich we should read (thrown) ] ; and another is this verse This was extremely easy, that he asked for red sulphur : If he had asked bread from the Khwaja, what could I have done ? which was thus written, This would have been very easy had he asked for the water of life. Another is in this verse,