In Debt
Obeyd Zakaniعبید زاکانی
مردم به عیش و شادی و من در بلای قرض
People live in pleasure and joy, and I in the affliction of debt;
هریک به کار و باری و من مبتلای قرض
each has his work and business, and I am plagued by debt.
قرض خدا و قرض خلایق به گردنم
The debt to God and the debt to people hang upon my neck:
آیا ادای فرض کنم یا ادای قرض
shall I pay what is due to God, or pay off my debt?
خرجم فزون ز غایت و قرضم برون ز حد
My spending is past all bounds, my debt beyond all limit;
فکر از برای خرج کنم یا برای قرض
shall I worry over my expenses, or over my debt?
از هیچ خط نتابم غیر از سجل دین
I shrink from no document but the deed of a loan,
وز هیچکس ننالم غیر از گوای قرض
and I complain of no one but the witness to the debt.
در شهر قرض دارم واندر محله قرض
In town I owe, and in my quarter I owe;
در کوچه قرض دارم واندر سرای قرض
in the street I owe, and in my house I owe.
از صبح تا به شام در اندیشه مانده ام
From morning to evening I sit lost in thought,
تا خود کجا بیابم ناگه رجای قرض
wondering where I might suddenly find some hope of a loan.
A note for readers
The opening of Obeyd’s comic poem on his debts, in which the word qarz, ‘debt’ or ‘loan’, closes every couplet. Later in the poem he asks a minister to speak for him to the king, a reminder that poems like this could also be practical requests for help. The excerpt gives six of its ten couplets.
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.