Muntakhab al-tawarikh 44.3.4

44.3.4

If the sky calls the dust of your door musk, do not grieve, For the jewel's worth is not affected by the abuse of the purchaser. The poet had written, If Jupiter calls the gravel at your door rubies, do not grieve. And some of his poems also I have seen, but I remember none of them, and since Malik Ahmad was the real son of Amir Khusru, and reminded them of his father, the King and his companions and the learned men of the age were greatly pleased with these imitations and thought them very valuable. Another poet was Maulana Mazhar Jurra, whose descendants are still living in the city of Lakhnauti and have been highly thought of and respected from generations back. There is an anthology of his consisting of fifteen or sixteen thousand verses, but inasmuch as he was more of a Mulla than a poet, his poetry is not so highly esteemed by the learned, although were they to search, they would bring to light many a good thing in the way of rarity (of expression). Another (poet) is Qazi ‘Abid who wrote this poem— My friends say, ‘Abid with this fine nature of yours How is it that you have not written more poems and odes? To whom shall I address poems and odes, since in our time No suitable lover and no generous patron has arisen. This is a translation of the following poem in Arabic—