HEMISTICH. For wide and ample is the plain of earth.' The lioness said, 'O Damnah! thy vehement desire for inquiry appears to be not devoid of mental alarm, but thou hopest by cunning to bring thyself out innocent; but to look for escape from this strait without thy case being investigated is an impossible thought and a vain desire.' Damnah replied, 'I have many enemies, and those who bear malice towards me are infinitely numerous. What I look for is that my case may be entrusted to a judge who may be clear from interested feelings and from suspicion, and who will truthfully convey to the royal ears whatever is said or heard; and that the king will refer this to his world-adorning judgment, which is the mirror of victory and triumph, so that I may not be put to death on a mere suspicion and that in the day of retribution no blame may accrue on account of that innocent blood. COUPLET. I fear not death,-but may it never be: My blood [accusing] should entangle thee.1 The Lion said, 'I have never in any command deviated from the path of justice, and, save in the way of equity, is is impossible for me to tread; and if this perfidious act has proceeded from thee, thou shalt meet the punishment which is thy due. HEMISTICH. What in life's field thou sowest, thou shalt reap?' Damnah replied, 'Why should I imagine such treason? and by what means suffer the desire of high affairs and the longing for offices of dignity to pass through my mind? and for my part I know well the king's justice, and have surveyed the tokens of his righteous dealing, and I feel certain that he will not prevent my participating in his world-adorning justice, nor cut off from me the hope of the blessings of the due which he dispenses to all. COUPLET. For justice God did thee create, O king! From a just Lord, no unjust act can spring.' One of the by-standers said, 'What Damnah says is not intended in honor of the king, but by these words he hopes to avert calamity from himself.' Damnah rejoined, 'Who is more tender of me than I myself am, and who my truer friend than myself? and whoever permits himself to remain in a difficulty, and takes no thought for his own preservation, what hope can others place in him? COUPLET. Since thou neglectest e'en thine own affair, 1 Lit. Should seize thy skirt.' Thy speech is a proof of a want of understanding and judgment, and of an abundance of ignorance and error; and think not that this circumstance will remain hid from the king's sagacity, [not so!] but after due reflection he will distinguish between thy reproach and salutary advice, since his luminous mind can deliberate in a single night on the affairs of a whole life, and subdue vast armies by a thought. COUPLET. In one short breath his thought-far-sighted, world-subduing too— The lynx said, 'I am not so much astonished at thy former tricks and perfidiousness, as at thy declamation in thy present condition, and thy display of maxims, and quaint sayings, and saws.' Damnah rejoined, 'Aye! it is the place for admonition if it alights in the spot of acceptance, and it is the season for uttering maxims if they gain a hearing from the ear of understanding.' The lioness said, 'O traitor! art thou still in hopes of escaping by thy juggles and deceit?' Damnah answered, 'If one return evil for good, and think injury a just recompence for benefit, [I am, then, indeed, without hope]. Yet I, at least, have fully discharged my engagements as a servant, and have been faithful to my duty as a counsellor. The king well knows that no false accuser would dare to utter his calumnies before him, and if he think fit to deal cruelly with me, the infamy thereof will recoil on himself, and if he act precipitately with regard to me, and neglect the advantages of deliberation and the blessings of proof and patient investigation, he will repent in the end; as they have said, COUPLET. They who in action too great rashness show, Will their own reason's structure overthrow. And whoever deprives himself of the excellent quality of patience by acting precipitately, meets with what that woman met with, who, displaying overhaste in her proceedings, could not discriminate between her friend and the slave.' The Lion, who was listening to what Damnah said, when he heard this shrewd remark, asked, 'How was that?' STORY VII. Damnah said, 'They have related that in the city of Kashmir there was a merchant possessed of great wealth and opulence, and many servants, and a great establishment. He had a wife of moon-like face and musky ringlets, such that heaven's eye had never beheld a luminary like her, nor had so fair a figure ever come into the hand of Time. Her cheek was bright and radiant like the day when lovers meet, and her tresses dark, and long as the day of separation. VERSE. Her beauty like the mid-day glorious sun, Like the narcissus, half in sleep, her eye. And in close vicinity lived a painter, who, by his expertness, had acquired a world-wide notoriety,' and was admired by all for his pictures. The souls of the painters of China wandered distracted in the desert of jealousy at the brush of his portraiture, and the heart of the artists of Cathay were bewildered in the waste of envy at the skill of his delineation. VERSE. That skilful master could, with science rare, His paintings, like the wind,2 on water trace. Reason, like pictured things, insensate grew, In short there arose between him and the wife of the merchant a mutual attachment, and the painter began to feel a blind and uncontrollable love for that graceful form, and the monarch, Love, overcame the territory of his heart, the metropolis of the affections; and the forces of desire commenced their ravages over the seven regions of his body. HEMISTICH. King Love his heart, his faith's domain, subdued. The visual organs of the young lover, like the heart of the pious, became watchful, and the eyes of his vigils, like April clouds, began to rain down tears. COUPLET. Taper-like with inward burning, nightly where my love doth sleep, The merchant's wife, too, had beheld the youth and surrendered her heart to him, and had placed the volume of patience and forbearance in the niche of oblivion. 1 Lit. COUPLET. My heart is gone, my bosom, too, of life is void and leer, Pointed at by the finger of the world.'. 2 The wind as it curls the waters is said to delineate figures upon them. 3 The black hair on the white chcek looked like night painted on day! The attraction of love exerting its influence on both sides, they found the means of meeting without the intervention of a go-between, and the path of intercourse between them was clear from the dust of rivals. The woman said to her lover, Thou art ever favoring me with thy presence and adorning and shedding light upon my humble dwelling, and no doubt delay takes place until thou callest out and castest a pebble. If by thy skill in painting-in which thou art the phoenix of the age and the leader of the time-thou wouldest take thought and paint something, and make a thing which might be a token between me and thee, it would not be unwise, and rather conformable to judicious counsel.' The young artist replied, 'I will make a mantle of two colors, which shall be white on one side, like a star shining in the water; and black on the other, like an Ethiop's hair gleaming on the lobe of the ear of a fair beauty. When thou beholdest that signal, come out quickly.' While they were making this agreement, a slave of that painter was standing behind the wall, and overheard them. COUPLET. Ope not thy lips, if thou hast joys in hand, Several days passed and the mantle was finished and the visits agreed upon took place. One day the painter had gone out on important business, and stopped away late. The slave borrowed that mantle of the painter's daughter, on pretence of studying the manner in which the colors were mixed, and having put it on, came to the house of the lady. She, without reflection, from the excessive transports of joy which she felt at her lover's visit, did not distinguish between her paramour and his rival, nor observed the difference between her friend and this stranger. COUPLET. Her body to his clasp she gave, and did love's writing trace, The slave, by means of this robe obtained his wish; and after he had done with it, gave back the mantle. It happened that at the very same time, the painter returned, and having rent the garment of patience, from desire to behold his mistress, he threw the mantle over his shoulders and went towards the merchant's house, and the lady running forth to him, again said, with many endearments, 'Is it well with thee, my friend, that thou hast in this same instant come back again?' The young man saw how matters stood, and having made some excuse for coming, returned forthwith, 1 I omit kih after wakt as do the MSS. Either that or the va before la shak must evidently be dispensed with. and finding out the whole affair, chastised the slave and his daughter severely, burnt the mantle, and gave up the connection with the lady: and if she had not acted precipitately, she would not have been contaminated by the foul embraces of the slave, nor have been deprived of the visits of her darling lover and the conversation of a friend dear to her as her life. COUPLET. When thou the tree of haste hast planted, know, That on it the sad fruit of grief will grow. And I have brought forward this example that the king may perceive that he ought not to act precipitately with reference to me; and the real fact is, that I do not utter these words from fear of torture, and terror of his majesty; for although death is a sleep not to be coveted, and a rest little to be desired, nevertheless, come it will, and many mighty ones, driven to extremity at its hands, have learned that it is impossible for any one to evade the circle of annihilation and extinction. Whoever sets foot in the world of existence, must needs quaff the potion of death and clothe himself in the vestments of decay. STANZA. Ne'er did heaven place one in the sunny ray Of safety, but at the last it made Him, like the twilight of false morn, decay. And when the sempstress, Fortune, has o'erlaid One's stature with the coat of being, she Uncloaks him in the end, assuredly. And had I a thousand lives, and knew that in expending them I should benefit the king, I would surrender them all in an instant, and regard that as equivalent to perfect happiness in both worlds. COUPLET. Life is dear, but were it asked by one dearer far, like thee, Who would grudge his life, since love more precious than his life would be! But it is the bounden duty of the king to look to the end of this matter, for he cannot preserve his dominions without the swords [of his officers], and he must not assail the lives of his useful servants on a vain surmise. HEMISTICH. Thou wilt be sole, if many friends thou slay. And it is not possible to find at all times a servant who will show himself equal to the administration of affairs, nor to lay hands upon a minister worthy of one's confidence and deserving of promotion. 1 Here is an equivoque-kabá kardan is to make a cloak,' and also 'to rend a garment by tearing open the bosom.' |