سندبادنامه 373
English (machine translation) 373
- Language
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373.1
be given punishment, and that this be made the landmark of the laws of justice and the mainstay of the gates of equity,
so that the people of the world might know that when he shows no indulgence or partiality to the piece of his liver and the solace of his eye,
no leniency or favor will be shown to any stranger; and the elders have said thus:
"Punishment is the foundation of leadership."
When this news reached the hearing of the fifth vizier, he signaled the executioner to delay the punishment
and said, "Hold, until I go to the service of the shah's court, and submit to his judgment the harm
of haste in bringing forward death, and explain what is possible regarding the benefits
of deliberation, so that it may be seen how the order and command shall stand."
The Coming of the Fifth Vizier to the Court of the Shah
The fifth vizier—whose piercing judgment was the stars of the assembly of rule, and whose sound counsel
was the keys to the difficulties of the state and religion—went before the throne of the shah; and after
expressing greeting and rendering praise and service, said, "Gratitude for the divine blessings
is obligatory upon all the world in order to increase blessings and receive the abundance of generosity; and upon the servants
and retinue who spend their days in the shadow of kindness and the shade of compassion, it is even more obligatory;
for whatever is the utmost of desires and the object of life, and whatever human thought
and man's intellect can attain, has been attained in dignity and majesty through the auspicious mediation of this court;
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and far beyond the limits of desert, it has been attained through the inclusion of favors and the bestowal of gifts
of this state. And what gratitude could be greater than that the stations of justice
and ranks of excellence of the shah be preserved from hateful consequences and blameworthy ends?
And if the king decrees a punishment by way of haste, I shall submit the advantages of pause to his exalted judgment.
At this hour the shah has ordered that, on the basis of a mere suspicion
and an accusation whose acceptance is far from the endorsement of the intellect and whose contrary is close to natural disposition
and nature, they kill the prince without cause, and divest and strip of its string
the necklace of his life, which is the collar of glories around the neck of the world's existence. And if the shah
does not observe proper deliberation in this matter, and does not command thorough examination and inquiry into its beginning and its end,
he will experience the same regret that that delicate-natured merchant experienced, who at the outset
did not examine or investigate, until in the end he was caught in regret and loss,
and sorrow was of no avail." The king said, "Relate how this matter
and tale happened!"
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17. The Story of the Delicate-Natured Merchant
The vizier said: It is related that there was a merchant who would go to extremes in rendering food delicious
and in preparing delicacies; and he had traversed most of the world to earn wealth and obtain
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17. The Story of the Delicate-Natured Merchant
possessions. Across land and sea he had conducted profitable and successful trades,
endured arduous journeys to the ends of the horizons, and by this means
had acquired ample wealth and magnificent prosperity. Yet he dedicated all his aspiration to the appetite for fine foods,
limited the entirety of his greed to the devouring of clean viands,
contented himself among the world's pleasures with savory eatables, and was satisfied among mundane desires with wholesome drinks.
From the perfection of his gluttony, you would say he had become a mouth in all his limbs,
and from the excess of his craving, you would say he had become teeth in all his parts; yet along with this strength
In comparison with him, the nature of the air seemed coarse, and water did not appear fine enough to him.
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From this delicacy of temperament he was fastidious, faultfinding, and ill-tempered, so that he felt disgust at the water
of Kawīr and disliked the bliss of Paradise. In whatever city he entered,
first of all he would make the rounds of the row of cooks and victuallers. One day, mounted upon the steed of
appetite 'like the thirsty madman or the hungry famished one', he was riding and in the market
he wandered about, casting his eye on every dwelling and thoroughfare, selecting the choicest foods.
In the midst of his inspection he saw a slave-girl at the edge of a shop in clean clothes, upon a dainty
tray and a clean napkin, who had baked cakes of fine flour, butter, and honey, and
had placed them along the passage of the market for any purchaser, waiting with expectant eyes, of the utmost
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17. Tale of the Fastidious Merchant
loveliness and extreme elegance. You would have said it was the disk of the sun or the halo of the moon, or that the cheeks of
houris and the faces of the youths of Paradise were shining from palaces, or that Venus and Jupiter were bestowing light:
Linked texts (1)
- سندبادنامه — Ẓahīrī Samarqandī, Persian