The humid clouds of spring float over the enamelled meads,
And, like my eyes, dissolve in tears.
My fancy seeks thee in all places; and the beauties
Of Nature retrace, at every moment,
Thy enchanting image. But thou, O cruel fair one!
Thou endeavourest to efface from thy memory
The recollection of my ardent love--my tender constancy.
Thy charms eclipse the growing tulip--
Thy graceful stature puts to shame the lofty cyprus.
Let every nymph, although equal in beauty to Shireen,[10]
Pay homage to thy superiority; and let all men
Become like Ferhad[11] of the mountain,
Distracted on beholding thy loveliness.
How could the star of day have shone amidst the heavens,
If the moon of thy countenance had not concealed
Its splendour beneath the cloud of a veil?
Oh! banish me not from thy sight;
Command me--it will be charitable--
Command me to die.
How long wilt thou reject the amorous solicitations
Of thy Khacan? Wilt thou drive him to madness
By thy unrelenting cruelty? The doomed
To endless tears and lamentations.
[5] A person, called the Mawezn, summons the people to prayers
from the tower, at certain stated times, by ringing bells.
[6] Toos, the son of Nouder, makes a conspicuous figure among
the princes and warriors, celebrated by Ferdoosi in his book of
Kings.
[7] Caus supposed to have been Darius the Mede by some
historians.
[8] This poetical surname Khacan, adopted by Fath Ali Shah,
signifies emperor or king.
[9] The prophet Khezr (whom some mistake for Elias) is said to
have discovered and tasted the "waters of immortality," and
consequently to be exempt from death.
[10] Shireen, the favourite of Khosroo, is no less celebrated
for her beauty than for the passion with which she inspired
Ferhad.
[11] Of this unfortunate lover Ferhad, the romantic story has
been told by several distinguished writers. The mountain to
which our royal poet alludes is the Kooh Bisetoon (in the
province of Curdistan), where are still visible many figures
sculptured in the rock, which, by the romances of Persia, are
ascribed to the statuary Ferhad. Among these sculptures,
travellers have noticed the representation of a
female--according to local tradition, the fair Shireen, mistress
to King Khosroo, and the fascinating object of Ferhad's love. As
a recompense for clearing a passage over the mountain of
Bisetoon, by removing immense rocks, which obstructed the path
(a task of such labour as far exceeded the power of common
mortals, by Ferhad, however, executed with ease), the monarch
had promised to bestow Shireen on the enamoured statuary. But a
false report of the fair one's death having been communicated to
Ferhad in a sudden manner, he immediately destroyed himself; and
the scene of this catastrophe is still shown among the recesses
of Mount Bisetoon.
* * * * *