سندبادنامه 117
English (machine translation) 117
- Language
- English
117.1
after all, if you call out into a mountain, it returns an echo, and if you dig a well in a sandhill, water appears;
the benefit of Sindbād's teaching and the effusion of his instruction should have had no less an effect than that." He gave orders
so that they brought Sindbād, and he set forth these matters and said: "When an untamed horse is given to a trainer,
the trainer's instruction in the subtleties of training tames the beast, and educates
and refines it, so that by the gestures of the rein and the motion of the stirrup it discerns and observes the subtleties and breadths of his intent.
It bids farewell to the wildness that causes unruliness,
and puts away from itself the bestial nature that incites lack of self-control and provokes shamelessness;
and that is easily accomplished in a short time. Why
should the natural talent and disposition of the prince, who is from a noble stock and a tree of eminent men,
fail to take familiarity with manners and wisdom despite such perseverance, persistence, hardship of learning, and toil of teaching;
and why does the sapling that was to be the ornament of the meadow of religion and realm, and the adornment of the garden of kingship and community,
bear no fruit? Could it be that you have permitted negligence and remissness in training and attending to his precious side?"
When Sindbād heard these premisses, he stood up, asked permission of the shah
and of those present, and said: "May the longevity of the grandees of the realm and the peers of the court be in
117.16
The shah's becoming disturbed and summoning Sindbād
the shadows of majesty and an increase of dignity! If there be leave, I shall present an offering of excuses in reply to this address."
They commanded: "Speak!" Sindbād said: "May it not remain hidden from the noble opinion of the great ones, who are
the stars of the sky of excellence and the sweet herbs of the garden of justice, that for this encomiast of the sublime realm
there is a manifest ocean in the branches of sciences and the varieties of wisdoms, and a sound judgment in testing vicissitudes,
and the span of [my] life has been spent in teaching and learning, and imparting and acquiring benefit.
Even if the outward form of this circumstance lies open to [the accusation of] remissness, I have permitted no remissness;
and every endurance and exertion that could be possible and conceivable, I have brought forward.
Yet without heavenly assistance and divine favor, the beauty of the desired fortune does not reveal its countenance through human artifice;
all kinds of contrivances align only with the illuminations of decrees, and the desired face does not lift the veil from the countenance of its existence:
"Not everyone who seeks finds, and not everyone who sets out returns;
and
Linked texts (1)
- سندبادنامه — Ẓahīrī Samarqandī, Persian