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النشر الإلكتروني

53.

1. Without thee tears come from my wet eyelashes,

2. Without thee the tree of my hope becomes barren,

3. Without thee night and day in a solitary corner,

4.. I sit till my life comes to an end.

I have made this emendation in the 4th line, i.e., substituted

بر سر او as it is not idiomatic to say عموم بر سر آیو for عمر مو سر آیو بسر آيو or سر آیو

54.

1. O heart, I wear blue clothes in thy absence,

2. I bear the burden of thy grief like the tent-carrying elephant;

3. I boast of thy love like the dawn,

4. From this moment till the time of Israfil's trumpet.

In Persia indigo-blue, black or antimony (surma) coloured clothes

are worn in mourning; nil is indigo, and not purple.

In the 2nd line the last word is an elephant, and not și zil hence s zail cannot rhyme with nil and sarafil. & jama means clothes, as well as carpets and other articles used for spreading, which I have translated as "tent" here. Note the colour of the elephant which has a dark bluish tint. Other poets have used the words and together, keeping the colour of the latter in view. Firdousi :

مرا سهم دادی که در پای پیل * تنم را بسازی چو دریای نیل

"You threatened me that under the feet of elephants
“You will make my body like the river Nile.

Cf.

The colour of the Nile, from the meaning of the word, is supposed to be blue.

The translator considers this Quatrain to be free from dialectical forms. This is true in one sense, that is, as far as writing is concerned.

زنم - کشم - پوشم But in pronunciation it differs in so far that the words

are pronounced in Raji as pushum, kashum, zanum, and not as in modern Persian, pusham, kasham, and zanam.

دم

dam; dam

In the 4th line, note the play upon the second word means the "moment" also "blowing," where it stands for the verb O so that the line means "from this moment till the moment or time of Israfil's trumpet" or "from this moment till the blowing of Israfil's trumpet."

55.

1. The vessel of my happiness is full of grief (liver's or heart's blood),

2. My heart is ever full of fire and my eyes ever wet ;

3. With thy perfume I should gain life after death,

4. If haply thou should pass over my grave (earth).

Saadi has expressed the same idea in his lab Taiyibat, where he says:

بوی معشوق چو بر خاک احبا گذرد * چه عجب گز اثرش زنده شود عظم رضیم

"Should the perfume of the beloved pass over the earth of the

lovers,

life."

"What wonder that from its effects the rotten bones may come to

Or, compare the couplet of Hafiz :—

بعد صد سال اگر بوی تو بر خاک وزد * سر بر آرد ز کفن رقص کنان عظم رميم

"Should thy perfume blow over the earth even after a hundred

years,

"The rotten bones will come out of the winding sheet dancing." Note the word play on in connection with, as the word plovo

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This Quatrain is not Baba Tahir's, nor is its metre the same as that used by the Baba. The word Kirman has another meaning, besides the two quoted by Mr. Allen. It means " grapes;" hence the origin of the name of Kirmanshahan where a thousand grape-vines were planted, and several kings had assembled round the throne of Khusrau Parviz who exclaimed the words Kirman (grapes) and Shahan (kings), which became the name of the place where this grand assembly had been held (vide Farhang-i-Anjuman-Ara-i-Nasiri, under the word Kirmanshahan.) The allusion to eating in the two expressions ya los is more appropriate in regard to grapes than conquering Kirman, though the word "play" has been very cleverly introduced here. The meaning is, that "the king who in the fulness of his power was eating grapes, to-day the worms are devouring him," or in Saadi's lines, "I had set my heart to eat grapes, when suddenly the worms devoured me.”

57.

1. Dark is my lot, Oh that my lot may be topsy-turvy ;

2.

Ruined is my fortune, Oh that my fortune may be overturned; 3. I have become a thorn and a thistle of the lane of Love

4. By the doings of my heart; O Lord? that it may be drowned in blood.

In these lines it will be observed that the poet curses his lot, his fortune and his own heart.

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1. Since the day Thou createdst us,

2. What hast Thou seen in us save sin?

3. O, Lord! for the sake of Thy Twelve Imams,
4. Forgive me, as if Thou hadst not seen my sins.

شتر دیدی نه The proverb

"Didst thou see the camel ?" the reply is for the sake of metre,

"No." The poet has made it

which when translated would be, "Didst thou see the camel? Thou didst not see it." The poet prays God to forgive him the sins He has seen him committing, and asks Him that his sins may be condoned.

M. Huart's note is correct as regards the proverbial expression; but the translator gives a Turkish proverb, which is wide of the mark; the Turkish proverb means that "there is no escape from death,” that is, that death is a certainty, and the Turkish proverb has no connection with the proverb & which means that if asked whether you have seen the camel, say no, that is " pass over my sins as if you had not seen any sin in me." It is, therefore, a pleading for forgiveness of sins and not for long life.

ديدي

The Quatrain is genuine and not spurious.

59.

1. The grief of the whole world is my soul's portion,

2. Freedom from my pains is alchemy;

3. Every one's pain at last is cured,

4. It is my heart alone whose remedy is annihilation.

In the 2nd line the word is used to show that it exists only in name, and similarly my freedom from pain is an impossibility. bs and m Elixir, are also used to denote rare things; for instance we say in Persian,, i.e., it is very rare or it exists not. a fabulous bird" is used in a similar sense.

عنقا The word

60.

1.

Let me go and return, and get out of this world,

2. Let me depart and go further than China and Machin;

3. Let me go and ask the Hajis of Haj,

4. If this distance is enough or may I journey further on.
The word

here is in the imperative mood and corresponds to

the English poetic form "go we."

61.

1. My tender beloved, where art thou?

2.

Where art thou, my beloved with Surma-dyed eyes ?

3.

The breath has reached Tahir's bosom (throat);

4. At this moment of departure, O my beloved! where art thou ?

62.

1. Thou who hast not learnt heavenly lore,

2. Thou who hast not tracked the way to the Tavern,

3. Thou who knowest not thy own gain or loss,

4. Alas, alas! how canst thou overtake the men of decided character ?

i

63.

1. I saw a little husbandman in this field,

2. Who was sowing tulips with the blood of his eyes;

3. He was ever sowing and saying, Alas!

4. That one has to sow and leave it behind in this field.

Mr. Allen's edition of the text does not contain this Quatrain which I have added with its translation. It is given in the Farhang-i-Anjuman-Arā-i-Nāşiri under the word y Alala.

Finis.

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