The Memoirs of Bābur 906.3.1

906.3.1

No grain (_ghala_) have I by which I can be fed (_noshīd_); No rhyme of grain (_mallah_, nankeen) wherewith I can be clad (_poshīd_); The man who lacks both food and clothes, In art or science where can he compete (_koshīd_)? In those days of respite, I had written one or two couplets but had not completed an ode. As an answer to Mullā Binā'ī I made up and set this poor little Turkī quatrain;—[552] As is the wish of your heart, so shall it be (_būlghūsīdūr_); For gift and stipend both an order shall be made (_buyurūlghūsīdūr_); I know the grain and its rhyme you write of; The garments, you, your house, the corn shall fill (_tūlghūsīdūr_). The Mullā in return wrote and presented a quatrain to me in [Sidenote: Fol. 87b.] which for his refrain, he took a rhyme to (the _tūlghūsīdūr_ of) my last line and chose another rhyme;— Mīrzā-of-mine, the Lord of sea and land shall be (_yīr būlghūsīdūr_); His art and skill, world o'er, the evening tale shall be (_samar būlghūsīdūr_); If gifts like these reward one rhyming (_or_ pointless) word; For words of sense, what guerdon will there be (_nilār būlghūsīdūr_)? Abū'l-barka, known as _Farāqi_ (Parted), who just then had come to Samarkand from Shahr-i-sabz, said Binā'ī ought to have rhymed. He made this verse;—