سندبادنامه 369
English (machine translation) 369
- Language
- English
369.1
"Slender-flanked, long-striding, fierce, swift, / firm of spine, supple of joint;
When he looks around, his glance is so keen / it is as if he gazes through a bee-swarm;
He squats like a nomad warming himself at a fire; / he runs over rough ground as though racing on a plain,
With four twisted [limbs] unbent, / hands like the paws of a desert cat, legs dappled;
His tracks leave their likeness in the hard rock; / in his leap, from his agility,
He nearly joins his back to his chest; / possessing a smooth tail, not weaponless."
369.8
16. The Story of the Hunter, the Honey, the Dog, the Weasel, and the Grocer
And through him this hunter procured the means of subsistence for his wife and child, and the provision for their maintenance and expenses,
and by that means passed his life. One day this hunter had gone to the mountain
to hunt, and was running on the tracks of game, when he reached the entrance of a cave and saw a cleft
from which honey was dripping. He looked more closely and saw many bees,
which had made their nest and dwelling within it, and day and night in that mountain range from the branches of trees
they gathered the dew that fell upon the flowers of gardens and the trees of thickets,
and grazed upon rose and hyacinth; by day they rolled upon the leaves of narcissus, and by night
slept in hexagonal pavilions which they had built of wax; with the queen bee overseeing them for
punishment, and a gatekeeper at the entrance to turn away the unclean; and honeycombs of various
colors prepared as a provision for winter. When the man saw this, he said to himself:
"Without any toil, my foot has sunk into a treasure; and without any effort, a gift has come into my grasp:
'You have hit the mark, so hold fast; you have found, so take the spoil!' No toil could be more successful than this, and no work
could be more fitting than this. The best course is that every day I carry a portion of this honey to the city
and provide the necessities of my livelihood from its price." Forthwith he filled a vessel which he had,
brought it into the city, offered it to a grocer, agreed upon a price,
369.25
16. The Story of the Hunter, the Honey, the Dog, the Weasel, and the Grocer
and placed the honey in the scales. The grocer wished to weigh the honey and ascertain its weight;
a drop of honey dripped upon the ground. And the grocer kept in the shop, to repel mice,
a weasel, tame and playful, which repelled the harm and evil of vermin. When
it saw the drop of honey, it ran and licked it with its tongue. The hunter's dog, according to habit, observed the weasel;
natural hostility and ingrained opposition stirred within him; he leaped forward and killed the weasel.
When the grocer saw the weasel killed, he writhed in anger, struck the dog's head with a stone,
and deprived it of life. When the hunter witnessed this, he drew his sword,
struck the grocer's hand, severed it, and cast it aside. When the market folk
saw the grocer in that condition, they seized the hunter with blows and beat him so much that
he perished. This news reached the ears of the governor: that a grocer's hand had been lopped off without cause,
and the market folk had killed a hunter in a tumult with heavy blows. The soldiers
he sent out the soldiers to repel the evil and extinguish that blaze, so that they might restrain the rabble and the mob from stirring up
war and discord. The mob divided into two groups and stood in battle against the soldiers,
and an enormous slaughter and fierce war broke out, and that discord ended in such a way
369.40
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Linked texts (1)
- سندبادنامه — Ẓahīrī Samarqandī, Persian