Know, tyrant as thou art, this earthly state
Is not eternal, but of transient date;
Fear God, then, and afflict not human-kind;
To merit Heaven, be thou to Heaven resigned.
Afflict not even the Ant; though weak and small,
It breathes and lives, and life is sweet to all.
Knowing my temper, firm, and stern, and bold,
Didst thou not, tyrant, tremble to behold
My sword blood-dropping? Hadst thou not the sense
To shrink from giving man like me offence?
What could impel thee to an act so base?
What, but to earn and prove thy own disgrace?
Why was I sentenced to be trod upon,
And crushed to death by elephants? By one
Whose power I scorn! Couldst thou presume that I
Would be appalled by thee, whom I defy?
I am the lion, I, inured to blood,
And make the impious and the base my food;
And I could grind thy limbs, and spread them far
As Nile's dark waters their rich treasures bear.
Fear thee! I fear not man, but God alone,
I only bow to his Almighty throne.
Inspired by Him my ready numbers flow;
Guarded by Him I dread no earthly foe.
Thus in the pride of song I pass my days,
Offering to Heaven my gratitude and praise.
From every trace of sense and feeling free,
When thou art dead, what will become of thee?
If thou shouldst tear me limb from limb, and cast
My dust and ashes to the angry blast,
Firdusi still would live, since on thy name,
Mahmud, I did not rest my hopes of fame
In the bright page of my heroic song,
But on the God of Heaven, to whom belong
Boundless thanksgivings, and on Him whose love
Supports the Faithful in the realms above,
The mighty Prophet! none who e'er reposed
On Him, existence without hope has closed.
And thou wouldst hurl me underneath the tread
Of the wild elephant, till I were dead!
Dead! by that insult roused, I should become
An elephant in power, and seal thy doom--
Mahmud! if fear of man hath never awed
Thy heart, at least fear thy Creator, God.
Full many a warrior of illustrious worth,
Full many of humble, of imperial birth:
Túr, Sílim, Jemshíd, Minúchihr the brave,
Have died; for nothing had the power to save
These mighty monarchs from the common doom;
They died, but blest in memory still they bloom.
Thus kings too perish--none on earth remain,
Since all things human seek the dust again.
O, had thy father graced a kingly throne,
Thy mother been for royal virtues known,
A different fate the poet then had shared,
Honors and wealth had been his just reward;
But how remote from thee a glorious line!
No high, ennobling ancestry is thine;
From a vile stock thy bold career began,
A Blacksmith was thy sire of Isfahán.
Alas! from vice can goodness ever spring?
Is mercy hoped for in a tyrant king?
Can water wash the Ethiopian white?
Can we remove the darkness from the night?
The tree to which a bitter fruit is given,
Would still be bitter in the bowers of Heaven;
And a bad heart keeps on its vicious course;
Or if it changes, changes for the worse;
Whilst streams of milk, where Eden's flowrets blow,
Acquire more honied sweetness as they flow.
The reckless king who grinds the poor like thee,
Must ever be consigned to infamy!
Now mark Firdusi's strain, his Book of Kings
Will ever soar upon triumphant wings.
All who have listened to its various lore
Rejoice, the wise grow wiser than before;
Heroes of other times, of ancient days,
Forever flourish in my sounding lays;
Have I not sung of Káús, Tús, and Gíw;
Of matchless Rustem, faithful, still, and true.
Of the great Demon-binder, who could throw
His kamund to the Heavens, and seize his foe!
Of Húsheng, Feridún, and Sám Suwár,
Lohurásp, Kai-khosráu, and Isfendiyár;
Gushtásp, Arjásp, and him of mighty name,
Gúdarz, with eighty sons of martial fame!
The toil of thirty years is now complete,
Record sublime of many a warlike feat,
Written midst toil and trouble, but the strain
Awakens every heart, and will remain
A lasting stimulus to glorious deeds;
For even the bashful maid, who kindling reads,
Becomes a warrior. Thirty years of care,
Urged on by royal promise, did I bear,
And now, deceived and scorned, the aged bard
Is basely cheated of his pledged reward!
[FOOTNOTES to the SHÁH NÁMEH]
[Footnote 1: Love at first sight, and of the most enthusiastic kind, is
the passion described in all Persian poems, as if a whole life of love
were condensed into one moment. It is all wild and rapturous. It has
nothing of a rational cast. A casual glance from an unknown beauty often
affords the subject of a poem. The poets whom Dr. Johnson has
denominated metaphysical, such as Donne, Jonson, and Cowley, bear a
strong resemblance to the Persians on the subject of love.
Now, sure, within this twelvemonth past,
I've loved at least some twenty years or more;
Th' account of love runs much more fast,
Than that with which our life does score:
So, though my life be short, yet I may prove,
The Great Methusalem of love!!!
"Love and Life."--Cowley.
The odes of Háfiz also, with all their spirit and richness of
expression, abound in conceit and extravagant metaphor. There is,
however, something very beautiful in the passage which may be
paraphrased thus:
Zephyr thro' thy locks is straying,
Stealing fragrance, charms displaying;
Should it pass where Háfiz lies,
From his conscious dust would rise,
Flowrets of a thousand dyes!]
[Footnote 2: Ancient Scythia embraced the whole of Túrán and the
northern part of Persia. The Túránians are the Scythians of the Greek
Historians, who are said, about the year B.C. 639, to have invaded the
kingdom of the Medes.
Túrán, which is the ancient name of the country of Turkistán, appears
from Des Guignes, to be the source and fountain of all the celebrated
Scythian nations, which, under the name of Goths and Vandals,
subsequently overran the Roman empire. Irán and Túrán, according to the
Oriental historians, comprehended all that is comprised in upper Asia,
with the exception of India and China. Every country beyond the pale of
the Persian empire was considered barbarous. The great river called by
the Arabs and Persians, Jihún or Amú, and by the Greeks and Romans,
Oxus, divided these two great countries from each other.]
[Footnote 3: Sám, Sám Suwár, was the son of Narímán. He is said to have
vanquished or tamed a great number of animals and terrible monsters,
amongst which was one remarkable for its ferocity. This furious animal
was called Sohám, on account of its being of the color and nature of
fire. According to fabulous history, he made it his war-horse, in all
his engagements against the Demons.]
[Footnote 4: The sex of this fabulous animal is not clearly made out! It
tells Zál that it had nursed him like a _father_, and therefore I have,
in this place, adopted the masculine gender, though the preserver of
young ones might authorize its being considered a female. The Símúrgh is
probably neither one nor the other, or both! Some have likened the
Símúrgh to the Ippogrif or Griffin; but the Símúrgh is plainly a biped;
others again have supposed that the fable simply meant a holy recluse of
the mountains, who nourished and educated the poor child which had been
abandoned by its father.]
[Footnote 5: This custom is derived from the earliest ages of Persia,
and has been continued down to the present times with no abatement of
its pomp or splendor Mr. Morier thus speaks of the progress of the
Embassy to Persia:--
"An Istakbál composed of fifty horsemen of our Mehmandar's tribe,
met us about three miles from our encampment; they were succeeded as
we advanced by an assemblage on foot, who threw a glass vessel
filled with sweetmeats beneath the Envoy's horse, a ceremony which
we had before witnessed at Kauzeroon, and which we again understood
to be an honor shared with the King and his sons alone. Then came
two of the principal merchants of Shiraz, accompanied by a boy, the
son of Mahomed Nebee Khan, the new Governor of Bushere. They,
however, incurred the Envoy's displeasure by not dismounting from
their horses, a form always observed in Persia by those of lower
rank, when they met a superior. We were thus met by three Istakbáls
during the course of the day."]
[Footnote 6: The province of Mázinderán, of which the principal city is
Amol, comprehends the whole of the southern coast of the Caspian sea. It
was known to the ancients by the name of Hyrcania. At the period to
which the text refers, the country was in the possession of demons.]
[Footnote 7: The fort called Killah Suffeed, lies about seventy-six
miles northwest of the city of Shiraz. It is of an oblong form, and
encloses a level space at the top of the mountain, which is covered with
delightful verdure, and watered by numerous springs. The ascent is near
three miles, and for the last five or six hundred yards, the summit is
so difficult of approach, that the slightest opposition, if well
directed, must render it impregnable.]
[Footnote 8: The numerical strength of the Persian and Túránian forces
appears prodigious on all occasions, but nothing when compared with the
army under Xerxes at Thermopylae, which, with the numerous retinue of
servants, eunuchs, and women that attended it, is said to have amounted
to no less than 5,283,220 souls.]
[Footnote 9: Herodotus speaks of a people confederated with the army of
Xerxes, who employed the noose. "Their principal dependence in action is
upon cords made of twisted leather, which they use in this manner: when
they engage an enemy, they throw out these cords, having a noose at the
extremity; if they entangle in them either horse or man, they without
difficulty put them to death."--Beloe's transl. Polymnia, Sec. 85.]
[Footnote 10: Istakhar, also called Persepolis, and Chehel-minar, or the
Forty Pillars. This city was said to have been laid in ruins by
Alexander after the conquest of Darius.]
[Footnote 11: Kai-káús, the second King of Persia of the dynasty called
Kaiánides. He succeeded Kai-kobád, about six hundred years B.C.
According to Firdusi he was a foolish tyrannical prince. He appointed
Rustem captain-general of the armies, to which the lieutenant-generalship
and the administration of the state was annexed, under the title of "the
champion of the world." He also gave him a taj, or crown of gold, which
kings only were accustomed to wear, and granted him the privilege of
giving audience seated on a throne of gold. It is said that Kai-káús
applied himself much to the study of astronomy, and that he founded two
great observatories, the one at Babel, and the other on the Tigris.]
[Footnote 12: The armor called Burgustuwán almost covered the horse, and
as usually made of leather and felt-cloth.]
[Footnote 13: In this hunting excursion he is completely armed, being
supplied with spear, sword, shield, mace, bow and arrows. Like the
knight-errants of after times, he seldom even slept unarmed. Single
combat and the romantic enterprises of European Chivalry may indeed be
traced to the East. Rustem was a most illustrious example of all that is
pious, disinterested, and heroic. The adventure now describing is highly
characteristic of a chivalrous age. In the Dissertation prefixed to
Richardson's Dictionary, mention is made of a famous Arabian
Knight-errant called Abu Mahommud Albatal, "who wandered everywhere in
quest of adventures, and redressing grievances. He was killed in the
year 738."]
[Footnote 14: As a proof of her innocence Tahmíneh declares to Rustem,
"No person has ever seen me out of my private chamber, or even heard the
sound of my voice." It is but just to remark, that the seclusion in
which women of rank continue in Persia, and other parts of the East, is
not, by them, considered intolerable, or even a hardship. Custom has not
only rendered it familiar, but happy. It has nothing of the unprofitable
severity of the cloister. The Zenanas are supplied with everything that
can please and gratify a reasonable wish, and it is well known that the
women of the East have influence and power, more flattering and solid,
than the free unsecluded beauties of the Western world.]
[Footnote 15: In Percy's Collection, there is an old song which contains
a similar idea.
You meaner beauties of the night,
That poorly satisfie our eies,
More by your number, than your light;
You common people of the skies,
What are you when the Moon shall rise?