Firishta's History (Gulshan-i Ibrāhīmī) 70.6

70.6

3. "Yon royal court will ill repay, "Though all its gorgeous wealth be given, "The blessings which you cast away, "Health and content, the gifts of heaven." 4. The glare of gems confused my sight — The ocean's roar I ne'er had heard; But now that I can feel aright, I freely own how I have erred. 5. Though splendid promises were made, How could I such a dollard prove, How could I leave my natal glade, Its wines, and all the friends I love? 6. Hafiz abjures the royal court — Let him but have content and health; For what to him can gold import, Who scorns the paths of worldly wealth? When Feiz Oolla received this poem, he read it to the King, who was much pleased; and observed, that as Hafiz had set out with the intention of visiting him, he felt it incumbent not to leave him without proofs of his liberality. He therefore entrusted a thousand pieces of gold to Mahomed Kasim Meshidy, one of the learned men at Koolburga, to purchase whatsoever, among the productions of India, was likely to prove most acceptable, in order to send them to the poet at Shiraz.