Qasida · 12th century

If It Is Not Fate

Anvariانوری

اگر محول حال جهانیان نه قضاست

If it is not Fate that changes the lot of the world’s people,

چرا مجاری احوال برخلاف رضاست

why do the courses of things run against our wishes?

بلی قضاست به هر نیک و بد عنان‌کش خلق

Yes, it is Fate that holds the reins of all creatures, in good and bad,

بدان دلیل که تدبیرهای جمله خطاست

and the proof is that all our plans go wrong.

هزار نقش برآرد زمانه و نبود

Time brings up a thousand pictures, and not one

یکی چنانکه در آیینه تصور ماست

is the way it looked in the mirror of our imagining.

کسی ز چون و چرا دم همی نیارد زد

No one dares to breathe a word of how and why,

که نقشبند حوادث ورای چون و چراست

for the painter of events is beyond how and why.

اگر چه نقش همه امهات می‌بندند

Though it is the Mothers who shape every form

در این سرای که کون و فساد و نشو و نماست

in this house of coming-to-be and passing-away, of growth and increase,

تفاوتی که درین نقش‌ها همی بینی

the differences you see among these forms

ز خامه‌ایست که در دست جنبش آباست

come from a pen held in the hand of the Fathers’ motion.

به دست ما چو از این حل و عقد چیزی نیست

Since nothing of this loosing and binding is in our hands,

به عیش ناخوش و خوش گر رضا دهیم سزاست

it is right that we consent to life, bitter or sweet;

که زیر گنبد خضرا چنان توان بودن

for under the green dome one can only live

که اقتضای قضاهای گنبد خضراست

as the decrees of the green dome require.

From: The Divan of Anvari
Translation: Persiahaus Editors
Source: Draft translation from the Ganjoor text
Persian text: Ganjoor

A note for readers

The opening of a qasida that begins as a meditation on fate before it turns, as court qasidas do, to praise of its patron, here Naser al-Din Abu’l-Fath Taher. The Mothers are the four elements and the Fathers the heavens, whose motion was thought to shape everything on earth; the green dome is the sky. The excerpt gives the first eight couplets.