Do Not Blame the Blue Heavens
Naser Khosrowناصرخسرو
نکوهش مکن چرخ نیلوفری را
Do not blame the lotus-blue wheel of heaven;
برون کن ز سر باد و خیره سری را
drive the wind of vanity and wilfulness from your head.
بری دان از افعال چرخ برین را
Know that the high wheel is innocent of your deeds;
نشاید ز دانا نکوهش بری را
it is not fitting for the wise to blame the innocent.
همی تا کند پیشه، عادت همی کن
So long as the world makes cruelty its trade,
جهان مر جفا را، تو مر صابری را
you must make patience your habit.
هم امروز از پشت بارت بیفگن
Throw your burden off your back this very day;
میفگن به فردا مر این داوری را
do not put off this reckoning until tomorrow.
چو تو خود کنی اختر خویش را بد
When you yourself make your own star an evil one,
مدار از فلک چشم نیک اختری را
do not look to the heavens for a lucky star.
به چهره شدن چون پری کی توانی؟
How could you become like a fairy in your face?
به افعال ماننده شو مر پری را
Become like a fairy in your deeds.
A note for readers
The opening of one of Naser Khosrow’s best-known qasidas, in which he argues that human beings, not the turning heavens, are answerable for what befalls them. The ‘lotus-blue wheel’ is the sky, which Persian poets often blamed for misfortune. The poem continues well beyond the six couplets given here.
More poemsشعرهای دیگر
یک عمر می‌توان سخن از زلف یار گفت
در بند آن مباش که مضمون نمانده است
One could speak for a lifetime of the beloved’s tresses;
do not fret that there are no themes left.
A Lifetime on the Beloved’s Tresses
بلبلی برگ گلی خوش رنگ در منقار داشت
و اندر آن برگ و نوا خوش ناله‌های زار داشت
A nightingale held in its beak a rose petal of lovely colour,
and with that petal and its song it made sweet, piteous laments.
A nightingale held a rose petal
ستاره ای بدرخشید و ماه مجلس شد
دل رمیده ما را رفیق و مونس شد
A star shone out and became the moon of the gathering,
became friend and companion to our startled heart.