If a Fierce Wind Should Rise
Ferdowsiفردوسی
اگر تندبادی براید ز کنج
If a fierce wind should rise up from a corner
بخاک افگند نارسیده ترنج
and throw an unripe citron to the ground,
ستمکاره خوانیمش ار دادگر
shall we call it unjust, or just?
هنرمند دانیمش ار بی هنر
Shall we call it skilled, or without skill?
اگر مرگ دادست بیداد چیست
If death is justice, then what is injustice?
ز داد این همه بانگ و فریاد چیست
Why all this crying and complaint about justice?
ازین راز جان تو آگاه نیست
Your soul has no knowledge of this secret;
بدین پرده اندر ترا راه نیست
you have no way behind this veil.
A note for readers
These lines open the story of Rostam and Sohrab, the best-known tragedy of the Shahnameh, in which the hero Rostam unknowingly kills his own son in single combat. Before telling the tale, Ferdowsi asks whether an early death, like unripe fruit blown from the tree, can be called just. The excerpt gives the first four couplets of the prologue.
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.