Response to Mahmud of Ghazni
From Wikisource
| Response to Mahmud of Ghazni by , translated by P. M. Sykes |
Verse to Mahmud of Ghazni→ |
| Written c. 997-1020 to Mahmud of Ghazni, after the monarch failed to "properly" reward his earlier Verse to Mahmud of Ghazni. Translation appeared in the 1910 Glory of the Shia World. |
Long years this Shahnama I toiled to complete,
That the King might award me some recompense meet,
But naught save a heart wrung with grief and despair
Did I get from those promises empty as air!
Had the sire of the King been some Prince of renown,
My forehead had surely been graced by a crown!
Were his mother a lady of high pedigree,
In silver and gold had I stood to the knee!
But, being by birth not a prince but a boor,
The praise of the noble he could not endure!
