He then continued, 'I was left in amazement in that thou continuedst to speak in such wise as to lead me to the belief that Irán-dukht was slain; yet I well knew thy sincere attachment and judiciousness, and could not but think that thou wouldest delay the execution of that order.' The vazír replied, 'My rejoinders were made in order that I might thoroughly understand the king's purpose, and see whether he repented of that order or not. If I had found your majesty still bent on her death, I should have secretly hastened the despatch of that affair. Since, however, the king's mind is more inclined to suffer her to live, I have made known my fault and offered my excuses for the delay.' The king responded, Thy caution and prudence are the more conspicious to me in this affair, and my confidence in thy sagacity and discernment has been augmented; and I have accepted the service which thou hast done, and the fruits thereof will reach thee with the utmost speed. Thou must now, this instant, proceed to Irán-dukht, make known all the circumstances and convey to her many excuses, and respectfully request, in the best way possible, that she will come hither, which alone will be a key to the gates of the acquisition of our desires and the capital of joyful union and delight. COUPLET. Come! for to meet thee is my prayer, the prayer I'm still repeating! Balár came out from the king's presence and conveyed to Irán-dukht the good news of her safety and the happy tidings of her being about to meet her royal lover. COUPLET. O heart! complain not, like the bud, thy bloom thou canst not hasten, Irán-dukht, obeying the royal mandate, hastened to wait on the king; and having performed the requisite obeisance, loosed the tongue of gratitude and thankfulness. The king said, 'Thou must ascribe this obligation to Balár, seeing that he fulfilled all that prudence could require, and paused in executing this purpose.' Balár said, 'I had the most complete confidence in the perfect clemency and compassion of your imperial majesty, and the excess of your benevolence and infinite mercy; and my consideration sprang thence into existence; otherwise, how could a slave venture to delay in executing the command of the sultán?' The king replied, 'O Balár! be of stout heart, for thy hand has free scope in my dominions, and thy command has obtained equal weight with my own, and there shall be no opposition to whatever thou mayest say or do in loosing and binding, and commanding and prohibiting.' Balár answered, 'Your majesty's former 1 Lit., upon thy road.' favors and bounteous acts outstrip all our services, and could I obtain a life of a thousand years' duration, I could not return thanks for one in a thousand of those bounties. COUPLET. The lily may its hundred tongues all use, 'T will fail to render to the spring its dues. But the prayer of your slaves is this, that hereafter your majesty will not evince precipitation in your acts, that the purity of the conclusion may be free from the obscuration of repentance.' The king responded, ‘We have deigned to listen to this counsel with the ear of acceptance; and for the future we will not issue a mandate without consultation and asking approval.' He then bestowed on the vazír and Irán-dukht, robes of honor of great value, and having moved joyfully forth from the dark cell of separation into the bride-chamber of union, he set in bright array the assembly of mirth. COUPLET. A noble banquet they in order set, And in joy's flower-garden, smiling, met. A beautiful cupbearer poured from a silver goblet pure wine to be quaffed by the gay companions, and the delicious liquid irrigated the plant of enjoyment on the rivulet of their bosoms. COUPLET. Bravo! the wine, to pleasure giving birth, Made brisk the mart of jollity and mirth. Sweet-voiced minstrels with harmonious concert of every kind of stringed instrument were bringing the bird of the heart into a state of fluttering excitement, and the melodies of song were inviting to the banquet of mirth and joy. The delicate trills of the harp imitated the warblings of the bird of a thousand songs, and the ravishing and tender tones of the lute effaced the rust from the mirror of the breasts of the intoxicated. VERSE. Singers like Venus with their sweet-toned voices, And goblets flashing bright like Mercury: Just as each fickle mind would wish the tone to be. The remainder of the day and all the night they spent in festivity. COUPLET. Next day, when morn with world-illuming ray, Conducted night auspiciously to day, the king gave a public levée and sate on the throne of justice, and the vazír Balár, having performed the required obeisance, demanded on his own behalf 1 Istijázat seems an unusually strong word for a despot to use. It signifies asking leave.' 2 Lit., into the palate.' and as representative of the wife and children of the king, justice on the Bráhmans, and recounted the interpretation of the dreams as they had delivered it in the manner aforesaid. Wherefore the king's command was condescendingly uttered, that they should summon the sage Kárídún into the presence, and the king committed to his decision the punishment of the Brahmans. At the suggestion of Kárídún, they impaled some of them, and casting the majority under the feet of elephants, crushed them to an equality with the dust of the road; and the sage said, This is the punishment of traitors and the chastisement of the perfidious. VERSE. Who from its sheath the cruel dagger take, Heaven with the same will them decapitate. And none their face like anvil rigid make, But must the avenging hammer's blows await.' After getting rid of his enemies, the king committed to his vazír the government of his kingdom, and yielding himself up to the delights of love with Irán-dukht, he fully satisfied the requirements of pleasure. Hold dear the night of love and mirth, and take thy fill of pleasure; The fortunes of the coming day no foresight e'er can measure. This is the story of the excellence of mildness and composure, and their superiority to the other qualities and habits of kings and princes; and let it not remain hid from the intelligent, that the advantage to be derived from the recital of this narrative, is the admonition of the readers and warning to the hearers, to make the experience of those who have preceded them, and the directions of the wise, a pattern for their own proceedings; and to base their religious and worldly affairs, and the substructures of their transactions of to-day and to-morrow on the rules of wisdom, and the pedestal of prudence; and to turn from impetuosity and rashness towards gravity and calmness. And whoever is distinguished by the eternal favor, assuredly the head of his spirit will be adorned with the diadem of courtesy, and the shoulder of his pre-eminence will be decked with the scarf of clemency; for courtesy and clemency make an enemy a friend, and exalt a friend to the position of a kinsman. VERSE. Dost thou consort with Meekness-Courtesy? Thy rival will prove faithful as 'a comrade of the cave.' 2 Thou among men make none thy enemy, That with thee time may circle on as thy true friends would have. 1 For bar namt-i mazkur takrir kardah budand, one MS. reads ghalat takrir kardah búdand, as they had wrongly interpreted.' 2 Yár-i ghar, a name of Abú-bakr, who was with Muhammad when he lay hid in the cave during his flight. Hence, any intimate companion. CHAPTER XIII. ON THE SHUNNING THE SPEECHES OF THE PERFIDIOUS AND INTRODUCTION. COUPLET. The ancient sage, who the world's conflicts knew, [In language sweet] thus wisdom's veil undrew. And when King Dábishlím had heard this story from the sage Bídpáí, he offered praise, from the signification of which the perfumes of friendship would reach the nostrils of the saintly, and whose import gave intelligence of the royal diplomas of the happy tidings of tho morn of felicity, and said, COUPLET. O thou! from whom, in problems dark, the reason light has won; And by whose sense thought's knotty points are all with ease undone, I have heard the description of the advantage of mildness and endurance, and the detriment of impetuosity and rashness; and have comprehended the superiority of composure and mildness over the other virtues of princes and qualities of potentates. Now recount a story illustrative of kings retaining faithful and loyal servants, and point out what class of persons best appreciate the value of patronage, and return thanks most fully for the benefits conferred on them.' The Bráhman, in reply to the praises of the king, having arranged the offering of benediction, said, 'May the most perfect share and most universal portion of every rare gift of fortune which unveils its face from the fabric, Assistance from God and a speedy victory,'1 and every felicitous boon which is displayed on the ornamented bride's seat, ‘For victory is from God alone,' be particularly bestowed on his highness the ruler of the kingdom! 1 Kur'an, lxi. 13; Sale, p. 408, 1. 14: 'Believe in God and his apostle. And ye shall obtain other things which ye desire, namely, assistance from God, and a speedy victory.' 2 Kur'an, Fl. iii. 122; Mar. 126; Sale, p. 47, 1. 5: And this God designed only as good tidings for you, that your hearts might rest secure for victory is from God alone, the mighty, the wise.' I take this opportunity of correcting a little slip in that wonderfully accurate work, G. Flügel's Concordance of the Kur'an, the only one I have yet found. Under má should be inserted 'chap. iii. 122,' as is proved by this passage and by referring to . النصر I VERSE. O may the garden's nurse erase, with th' eastern breeze's aid,1 The dust from off the tulip's face and the Arghwan's blushing cheek! Safe continue from the ravage of the winds of autumn bleak! The most powerful assistance in the matter, whereof the king has spoken, is to discern the proper field for employing [each individual]; and it behoves a king to test the coin of his servants with a variety of experiments on the touchstone of trial; and to make himself acquainted with the assay-value of the judgment, and knowledge, and sincerity, and prudence of each; and so to rely on their temperance, and integrity, and good faith, and honesty. For the capital stock for the service of kings is truthfulness, and truthfulness cannot exist without the fear of God and uprightness. And the beginning of all knowledge is fear and awe [as it is said], 'Such only of his servants fear God as are endued with understanding.' Every servant of the king that fears God, the king, too, will have strong grounds for reliance on him; and the people will see in him a prop of hopefulness. VERSE. One who fears God be o'er thy people set, For 'tis the pious man builds up the State. One who dreads Heaven for thy vazír get, Not one who fears the king and his own fate. And assuredly it is not fit that a liar and an untruthful man should be raised to a position of confidence, and should obtain the power of access to the king's secrets; for thence troubles will arise, and the injurious effects thereof will be evident for a long, long period.' The king said, "This subject requires detailed explanation, for men without birth, or dignity, or real worth, may be adorned with some attractive qualities, yet in the end their affairs, commencing a retrograde movement, will become the cause of shame to their patrons. COUPLET. He that is by nature base, though faithful he at first may be, The Bráhman said, 'The distinct exposition of this matter is, that three qualities are required for the servant of a king. The first is uprightness in action, for a trustworthy man is approved both by the Creator and by 1 Lit., 'hand.' 2 See Proverbs, c. i. v. 7: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.' 3 Kur'an, Fl. xxxv. 25; Mar. 28; Sale, p. 328, 1. 29: Dost thou not see that God sendeth down rain from heaven; and that we thereby produce fruits of various colors? In the mountains also there are some tracks white and red, of various colors; and others are of a deep black and of men, and beasts, and cattle, there are whose colors are in like manner various. Such only of his servants fear God as are endued with understanding: verily God is mighty, and ready to forgive.' |