Tales from the Gulistan/Chapter 5
V
ON LOVE AND YOUTH
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“POSSESSED A SLAVE OF EXQUISITE BEAUTY”
STORY CXXXII
Hasan Muimandi was asked, that as the Sultân Mahmûd possesses so many beautiful slaves, each of whom is a marvel in the world, how it happens that he manifests towards none of them so much inclination and love as to Iyâz, although he is not more handsome [than the others]. He replied: "Whatever descends into the heart appears good to the eye."
He whose Murid[1] the Sultân is, if he does everything bad, it will be good; but he whom the Pâdshâh throws away will not be cared for by anyone in the household.
If anyone looks with an unfavourable eye, [even] the figure of Joseph[2] will indicate ugliness. And if he looks with the eye of desire on a demon, he will appear an angel, a cherub in his sight. STORY CXXXIII
It is said that a gentleman possessed a slave of exquisite beauty, whom he regarded with love and affection; he nevertheless said to a friend: "Would that this slave of mine, with all the beauty and good qualities he possesses, had not a long and uncivil tongue!"
He replied: "Brother! Do not expect service, after professing friendship; because when [relations between] lover and beloved come in, [the relations between] master and servant are superseded."
When a master with a fairy-faced slave begins to play and to laugh, what wonder if the latter coquets[3] like the master, and the gentleman bears it like a slave?
A slave is to draw water and make bricks; a pampered slave will strike with the fist. STORY CXXXIV
One had lost his heart and bidden farewell to his life, because the target which he aimed at was in a dangerous locality, portending destruction, and no chance promising a morsel easily coming to the palate, nor a bird falling into the trap.
When thy sweetheart's eye has no regard for gold,
Mud and gold are of equal value to thee.
I once advised him to abandon his aspiration to a fancy impossible of realisation, because many persons are enslaved by the same passion like himself, the feet of their hearts being in chains. He lamented and said
"Tell my friends not to give me advice, because my eyes are fixed on her wishes. By the strength of fist and shoulderswarriors slay enemies, but sweethearts a friend. It is against the requirements of love to renounce affection to our sweethearts, for fearing of losing our fives.
"Thou who art a slave to thy selfishness,
Art mendacious in the game of love.
If there be no way to reach the friend,
Friendship demands to die in pursuit of it.
"I rise, as no other resource is left to me, though the foe may smite me with arrow and sword; if chance serves me I shall take hold of her sleeve, or else I shall go and die on her threshold."
His friends, who considered his position, pitied his state, gave him advice, and at laSt confined him, but all to no purpose. Alas, that the physician should prescribe patience,[4] whereas this greedy lust requires sugar.
Hast thou heard that the mistress secretly
Told him, who had lost his heart:
"As long as thou possessest thy own dignity,
What will mine amount to in thy eyes?"
It is related that the royal prince, who was the object of his affection, had been informed to the effect that a good-natured and sweet-spoken youth was constantly attending on the plain, uttering graceful words; and strange tales having been heard of him, it appeared that his heart was inflamed, and that he had a touch of insanity in his head. The boy knew that his heart had become attached to him, and that he had raised this dust of calamity; accordingly he galloped towards him. When the youth perceived the prince approaching him, he wept and said:
"He who has slain me has come back again. It seems his heart burns for him whom he has slain."
Although he accosted the youth graciously, asking him whence he came, and what his occupation was, he was so plunged in the depths of the ocean of love that he could not breathe.
If thou recitest the seven portions of the lesson by heart,[5] when thou art demented by love thou knowest not the A, B, C.[6]
The prince said: "Why speakest thou not to me? I also belong to the circle of Dervishes; nay, I am even in their service."
In consequence of the force of the friendly advances of his beloved, he raised his head from the dashing waves of love and said: "It is a marvel that with thy existence mine remains, that when thou speakest, words to me remain."
Saying these words, he uttered a shout and surrendered his life.
STORY CXXXV
A schoolboy was so perfectly beautiful and sweet-voiced that the teacher, in accordance with human nature, conceived such an affection towards him that[7] he often recited the following verses
I am not so [little] occupied with thee, O heavenly face,
That remembrance of myself occurs to my mind;
From thy sight I am unable to withdraw my eyes,
Although when I am opposite I may see that an arrow comes.
Once the boy said to him: "As thou strivest to direct my studies, direct also my behaviour! If thou perceivest anything reprovable in my conduct, although it may seem approvable to me, inform me thereof, that I may endeavour to change it."
He replied: "O boy! Make that request to someone else, because the eyes with which I look upon thee behold nothing but virtues."
The ill-wishing eye, be it torn out,
Sees only defects in his virtue.
But if thou possessest one virtue and seventy faults,
A friend sees nothing except that virtue.
STORY CXXXVI
One who had for a considerable time not seen his friend, asked him where he had been, and said he had been longing. He replied: "To be longing is better than to be satisfied."
Thou hast come late, O intoxicated idol,
We shall not soon let go thy skirt from the hand.
He who sees his sweetheart at long intervals,
Is, after all, better off than if he sees too much of her.
When thou comest with friends to visit me, although thou comest in peace, thou art attacking! If my sweetheart associates one moment with strangers, it wants but little, and I die of jealousy. She said, smiling: "I am the lamp of the assembly, O Sa'di; what is it to me if a moth kills itself?"[8]
STORY CXXXVII
STORY CXXXVIII
I knew a learned man who had fallen in love with someone, but his secret having fallen from the veil [of concealment] into publicity, he endured abundant persecution, and displayed boundless patience. I said once to him, by way of consolation: "I know thou entertainest no worldly motive, nor inclination for baseness; it is nevertheless unbecoming the dignity of a scholar to expose himself to suspicions, and to bear the persecutions of mannerless persons."
He replied: "O friend! Take off the hand of reproach from my skirt; because I have often meditated on the opinion which thou entertainest, but have found it easier to bear persecution for his sake than not to see him; and philosophers have said that it is easier to accustom the heart to strife than to turn away the eye from seeing [the beloved]."
Who has his heart with a heart-ravisher has his beard in another's hand. A gazelle with a halter on the neck is not able to walk of its own accord. If he, without whom one cannot abide, becomes insolent, it must be endured. I one day told him to beware of his friend, but I often asked pardon[9] for that day. A friend does not abandon a friend; I submit my heart to what he wills; whether he kindly calls me to himself, or drives me away in anger, he knows best.
STORY CXXXIX
One of the Ullemma had been asked that, supposing one sits with a moon-faced [beauty] in a private apartment, the doors being closed, companions asleep, passion inflamed, and lust raging, as the Arab says, the date is ripe, and its guardian not forbidding—whether he thought the power of abstinence would cause the man to remain in safety. He replied: "If he remains in safety from the moon-faced one, he will not remain safe from evil speakers."
If a man escapes from his own bad lust he will not escape from the bad suspicions of accusers. It is proper to sit down to one's own work, but it is impossible to bind the tongues of men.
STORY CXL
A parrot, having been imprisoned in a cage with a crow, was vexed by the sight, and said: "What a loathsome aspect is this? What an odious figure! What cursed object with rude habits! O crow of separation, would that the distance of the east from the west were between us! Whoever beholds thee when he rises in the morning, the morn of a day of safety becomes evening to him. An ill-omened one like thyself is fit to keep thee company; but where in the world is one like thee?"
More strange still the crow was similarly distressed by the proximity of the parrot, and, having become disgusted, was shouting 'Lâ haul'[10] and lamenting the vicissitudes of time. He rubbed the claws of sorrow against each other, and said: "What ill-luck is this? What base destiny and chameleon-like times! It was befitting my dignity to strut about on a garden-wall, in the society of another crow. It is sufficient imprisonment for a devotee to be in the same stable as profligates. What sin have I committed that I have already in this life, as a punishment for it, fallen into the bonds of this calamity in company with such a conceited, uncongenial, and heedless fool? No one will approach the foot of the wall upon which they paint thy portrait. If thy place were in paradise others would select hell."
I have added this parable to let thee know that, no matter how much a learned man may hate an ignorant man, the latter hates him equally.
A hermit was among profligates when one of them, a Balkhi[11] beauty, said: "If thou art tired of us, sit not sour, for thou art thyself bitter in our midst."
An assembly joined together like roses and tulips!
Thou art withered wood, growing in its midst,
Like a contrary wind, and unpleasant frost,
Like snow inert, like ice bound fast.
STORY CXLI
I had a companion with whom I had travelled for years and eaten salt. Boundless intimacy subsisted between us, till at last he suffered my mind to be grieved for the sake of some paltry gain, and our friendship closed: despite of all this, however, mutual attachment of heart still subsisted between us, because I heard him one day reciting in an assembly the following two distichs of my composition:
When my sweetheart enters sweetly smiling,
She adds more salt to my bleeding wound;
How would it be if the tip of her curls fell into my hand,
Like the sleeve of the bountiful into the hands of Dervishes?
Some friends bore witness, not so much to the gracefulness of these verses as to the beauty of my conduct, which they approved; and among the rest the said friend likewise added his share of praise, regretting the loss of our former companionship, and confessing his fault, so that his affection became known. Accordingly I sent the following distichs, and made peace:
Was not there a covenant of friendship between us?
Thou hast been cruel, and not loving.
I once tied my heart to thee, disregarding the world,
Not knowing thou wouldst turn back so soon;
If thou yet desirest conciliation, return,
Because thou wilt he more beloved than before.
STORY CXLII
The beautiful wife of a man died, but her mother, a decrepit old hag, remained in the house on account of the dowry. The man saw no means of escaping from contact with her, until a company of friends paid him a visit of condolence, and one of them asked him how he bore the loss of his beloved. He replied: "It is not as painful not to see my wife as to see the mother of my wife."
The rose has been destroyed and the thorn remained, the treasure has been taken and the serpent[12] left. It is better that one's eyes be fixed on a spear-head than that it should behold the face of an enemy. It is incumbent to sever connection with a thousand friends rather than to behold a single foe.
STORY CXLIII
I remember having in the days of my youth passed through a street, intending to see a moon-faced [beauty]. It was in Temûz,[13] whose heat dried up the saliva in the mouth, and whose Simûm[14] boiled the marrow in my bones. My weak human nature being unable to endure the scorching sun, I took refuge in the shadow of a wall, wishing someone might relieve me from the summer heat, and quench my fire with some water; and lo! all of a sudden, from the darkness of the porch of a house, a light shone forth, namely a beauty, the grace of which the tongue of eloquence is unable to describe. She came out like the rising dawn after an obscure night, or the water of immortality gushing from a dark cavern, carrying in her hand a bowl of snow-water, into which sugar had been poured, and essence of roses mixed. I knew not whether she had perfumed it with rose-water, or whether a few drops from her rosy face had fallen into it. In short, I took the beverage from her beautiful hands, drank it, and began to live again.
The thirst of my heart cannot be quenched
By sipping limpid water, even if I drink oceans of it.
Blessed is the man of happy destiny whose eye alights every morning on such a countenance. One drunk of wine awakens at midnight; one drunk of the cup-bearer on the morn of resurrection.
STORY CXLIV
In the year when Muhammad Khovarezm Shâh concluded peace with [the king of] Khatâ to suit his own purpose, I entered the cathedral mosque of Kashgâr and saw an extremely handsome, graceful boy as described in the simile:
Thy master has taught thee to coquet and to ravish hearts,
Instructed thee to oppose, to dally, to blame, and to be severe;
A person of such figure, temper, stature, and gait
I have not seen; perhaps he learnt these tricks from a fairy.
He was holding in his hand the introduction to Zamaksharni's [Arabic] syntax, and reciting: 'Zaid struck Amru and was the injurer of Amru.'
I said: "Boy! Khovarezm and Khatâ have concluded peace, and the quarrel between Zaid and Amru still subsists!"
He smiled and asked for my birthplace; I replied: "The soil of Shirâz."
He continued: "What rememberest thou of the compositions of Sa'di?"
I recited:
He considered awhile, and then said: "Most of his poetry current in this country is in the Persian language; if thou wilt recite some, it will be more easily understood."
Then I said:
When thy nature has enticed thee with syntax
It blotted out the form of intellect from our heart.
Alas, the hearts of lovers are captive in thy snare;
We are occupied with thee, but thou with Amru and Zaid.
The next morning, when I was about to depart, some people told him that I was Sa'di, whereon he came running to me and politely expressed his regret that I had not revealed my identity before, so that he might have girded his loins to serve me, in token of the gratitude due to the presence of a great man. "In spite of thy presence no voice came to say: 'I am he.'"
He also said: "What would it be if thou wert to spend in this country some days in repose, that we might derive advantage by serving thee?"
I replied: "I cannot, on account of the following adventure which occurred to me: I beheld an illustrious man in a mountain region who had contentedly retired from the world into a cave. 'Why,' said I, 'comest thou not into the city, for once to relax the bonds of thy heart?' He replied: 'Fairy-faced maidens are there: when clay is plentiful, elephants will stumble.'"
This I said; then we kissed each other's heads and faces and took leave of each other. What profits it to kiss a friend's face and at the same time to take leave of him? Thou wouldst say that he who parts from friends is an apple, one half of his face is red and the other yellow.
If I die not of grief on the day of separation,
Reckon me not faithful in friendship.
STORY CXLV
A man in patched garments[17] accompanied us in a caravan to the Hejâz, and one of the Arab Amirs presented him with a hundred dinârs to spend upon his family; but robbers of the Kufatcha tribe suddenly fell upon the caravan and robbed it clean of everything. The merchants began to wail and cry, uttering vain shouts and lamentations.
The Dervish alone had not lost his equanimity, and showed no change. I asked: "Perhaps they have not taken thy money?"
He replied: "Yes, they have, but I was not so much accustomed to that money that separation therefrom could grieve my heart. The heart must not be tied to any thing or person, because to take off the heart is a difficult affair."
I replied: "What thou hast said resembles my case, because when I was young, my intimacy with a young man and my friendship for him were such that his beauty was the Qiblah[18] of my eye; and the chief joy of my life union with him. Perhaps an angel in heaven, but no mortal can be on earth equal in beauty or form to him. [I swear] by the amity, after which companionship is illicit, no [human] germ will [ever] become a man like him!
"All of a sudden the foot of his life sank into the mire of non-existence, the smoke [grief] of separation arose from his family; I kept him company on his grave for many days, and one of my compositions on his loss is as follows:
"Would that on the day when the thorn of fate entered thy foot, the hand of heaven had struck a sword on my head: so that this day my eye could not see the world without thee; here I am on thy grave—would that it were over my head.
" He who could take neither rest nor sleep
Before he had first scattered roses and narcissi,
The turns of heaven have strewn the roses of his face,[19]
Thorns and brambles are growing on his tomb.
After separation from him I resolved and firmly determined to fold up the carpet of pleasure during the rest of my life, and to retire from mixing in society:
"Last night I strutted about like a peacock in the garden of union, but to-day, through separation from my friend, I twist my head like a snake. The profit of the sea would be good if there were no fear of waves; the company of the rose would be sweet if there were no pain from thorns."
STORY CXLVI
A king of the Arabs, having been informed of the relations subsisting between Laila and Mejnûn, with an account of the latter's insanity, to the effect that he had, in spite of his great accomplishments and eloquence, chosen to roam about in the desert and to let go the reins of self-control from his hands; he ordered him to be brought to his presence, and, this having been done, he began to reprove him, and to ask him what defect he had discovered in the nobility of the human soul, that he adopted the habits of beasts and abandoned the society of mankind?
Mejnûn replied: "Many friends have blamed me for loving her, will they not see her one day and understand my excuse? Would that those who are reproving me could see thy face, O ravisher of hearts! That instead of a lemon, in thy presence they might needlessly cut their hands,[20] that the truth may bear witness to the assertion: This is he for whose sake ye blamed me.'"[21]
The King expressed a wish to see the beauty of Laila, in order to ascertain the cause of so much distress; accordingly he ordered her to be searched for. The encampments of various Arab families having been visited, she was found, conveyed to the King, and led into the courtyard of the palace. The King looked at her outward form for some time, and she appeared despicable in his sight, because the meanest handmaids of his harem excelled her in beauty and attractions.
Mejnûn, who shrewdly understood [the thoughts of the King], said: "It would have been necessary to look from the window of Mejnûn's eye at the beauty of Laila, when the mystery of her aspect would have been revealed to thee."
Who are healthy have no pain from wounds;
I shall tell my grief to no one but a sympathiser.
It is useless to speak of bees to one
Who never in his life felt their sting.
As long as thy state is not like mine,
My state will be but an idle tale to thee.
STORY CXLVII
A virtuous and beauteous youth was pledged to a chaste maiden. I read that in the great sea they fell into a vortex together. When a sailor came to take his hand, lest he might die in that condition, he said in anguish, from the waves: "Leave me! Take the hand of my love!" Whilst saying this, he despaired of life; in his agony he was heard to exclaim: "Learn not the tale of love from the wretch who forgets his beloved in distress." Thus the lives of the lovers terminated.
Learn from what has occurred that which thou mayest know, because in the Arabian city of Baghdad Sa'di is well aware of the ways and means of love-affairs. Tie thy heart to the heart-charmer thou possessest, and shut thy eye to all the rest of the world. If Mejnûn and Laila were to come to life again, they might indite a tale of love on this occurrence.
- ↑ 'Disciple' in a religious sense, but literally 'one who desires something,' e.g. instruction, affection, etc. See also footnote on p. 94.
- ↑ Joseph is the paragon of male beauty in Persian poetry.
- ↑ Another copy has 'commands.'
- ↑ The word in the text is 'shr,' which may be read 'sabr,' meaning 'patience,' or 'sabir' 'aloes,' both of which are bitter.
- ↑ The seven portions of the Qurân are meant.
- ↑ The text has 'Alf, Ba, Ta,' which are the three first letters of the alphabet.
- ↑ Another copy adds: 'That he did not think proper to reprove or blame him like other boys, and when he found him to be alone, recited,' etc.
- ↑ Moths, as is well known, flutter around the light and burn themselves.
- ↑ The expression generally used for manifesting contrition, or repentance, is: 'I ask pardon from Allah!'
- ↑ See footnote on p. 154.
- ↑ A Balkhi is a native of Balkh in Afghanistan.
- ↑ The general belief in the east is, that first the serpent which is supposed to guard a treasure must be killed, whereon the latter can be removed; but above the contrary takes place, the serpent remaining.
- ↑ The month of July.
- ↑ The name of a fearfully hot wind blowing in the African deserts.
- ↑ A student of syntax.
- ↑ The play of words is on two grammatical terms, the nominative 'refa,' which means also 'raising,' 'elevating,' and the genitive 'jarr,' which means also 'pulling,' 'submitting.'
- ↑ A Dervish.
- ↑ The direction towards Mekkah, in which all Moslems are bound to turn when they say their orisons; in Bombay they turn to the west, and do not err much in doing so.
- ↑ More freely translated this would be: 'Have blanched the roses of his cheeks."
- ↑ Zuleikha, the wife of Potiphar, knowing that her female friends would be extremely surprised at the wonderful beauty of Joseph, of whom they previously thought ill, used a stratagem to change their mind, as appears from the Qurân, ch. xii., v. 31, which gave rise to the allusion in the above verses: And when she had heard of their subtle behaviour, she sent unto them and prepared a banquet for them, and she gave to each of them a knife; and then said [to Joseph] "come forth to them." And when they saw him they praised him greatly, and they cut their own hands and said, "O Allah, this is not a mortal; he is no other than an angel, deserving the highest respect.'
- ↑ Qurân, ch. xii., part of v. 32.