If Heart and Hand Are Sea and Mine
Anvariانوری
گر دل و دست بحر و کان باشد
If any heart and hand are sea and mine,
دل و دست خدایگان باشد
they are the heart and hand of our sovereign:
شاه سنجر که کمترین خدمش
King Sanjar, the least of whose servants
در جهان پادشه نشان باشد
bears the mark of a king in the world;
پادشاه جهان که فرمانش
the king of the world, whose command
بر جهان چون قضا روان باشد
runs over the world like Fate itself;
آنکه با داغ طاعتش زاید
he with the brand of whose obedience is born
هرکه ز ابنای انس و جان باشد
every child of men and of jinn;
وانکه با مهر خازنش روید
he with whose treasurer’s seal there grows
هرچه ز اجناس بحر و کان باشد
everything of every kind that sea and mine can yield.
دسته خنجرش جهانگیرست
The hilt of his dagger takes the world,
گرچه یک مشت استخوان باشد
though it is only a fistful of bone.
A note for readers
The opening of a qasida in praise of the Seljuk sultan Sanjar, Anvari’s chief patron. The heart is a sea and the hand a mine because both pour out pearls and gold, the standard images of a king’s generosity. The excerpt gives the first six couplets and shows the clear, compact style for which Anvari’s panegyrics were admired.
More poemsشعرهای دیگر
مرغی دیدم نشسته بر باره طوس
در پیش نهاده کله کیکاووس
I saw a bird perched on the ramparts of Tus,
with the skull of Kay Kavus set down before it.
A Bird on the Walls of Tus
یکی قطره باران ز ابری چکید
خجل شد چو پهنای دریا بدید
A drop of rain fell from a cloud;
it was ashamed when it saw the breadth of the sea.
A Drop of Rain
ابتدای کار سیمرغ ای عجب
جلوه‌گر بگذشت بر چین نیم‌شب
The beginning of the Simorgh’s story, how wonderful:
in all his splendour he passed over China at midnight.