Khosrow and Farhad
Nezami Ganjaviنظامی گنجوی
نخستین بار گفتش کز کجایی؟
First he asked him, ‘Where are you from?’
بگفت از دار ملک آشنایی
He said, ‘From the capital of the land of love.’
بگفت آن جا به صنعت در چه کوشند؟
He said, ‘What craft do they work at there?’
بگفت انده خرند و جان فروشند
He said, ‘They buy sorrow and sell their souls.’
بگفتا جان‌فروشی در ادب نیست!
He said, ‘Selling one’s soul is not good manners.’
بگفت از عشق‌باز‌ان این عجب نیست
He said, ‘Among lovers it is nothing strange.’
بگفت از دل شدی عاشق بدین‌سان؟
He said, ‘Did you fall in love like this with your heart?’
بگفت از دل تو می‌گویی، من از جان
He said, ‘You speak of the heart; I speak of the soul.’
بگفتا عشق شیرین بر تو چون است؟
He said, ‘How is your love for Shirin?’
بگفت از جان شیرینم فزون است
He said, ‘It is more than my own sweet life.’
بگفتا هر شبش بینی چو مهتاب؟
He said, ‘Do you see her every night, like the moonlight?’
بگفت آری چو خواب آید، کجا خواب؟
He said, ‘Yes, when sleep comes; but where is sleep?’
بگفتا دل ز مهرش کی کنی پاک؟
He said, ‘When will you clean your heart of her love?’
بگفت آن گه که باشم خفته در خاک
He said, ‘When I lie asleep in the earth.’
بگفتا گر خرامی در سرایش؟
He said, ‘And if you were to walk into her palace?’
بگفت اندازم این سر زیر پایش
He said, ‘I would throw this head beneath her feet.’
A note for readers
The famous exchange between King Khosrow and Farhad, his rival for Shirin, in which the king asks and Farhad answers, each in a single half-line. The excerpt gives the first eight couplets of a long run of question and answer, after which Khosrow sets Farhad to cut a road through the mountain of Bisotun. Shirin’s name means ‘sweet’, and Nezami plays on it: ‘my own sweet life’ is jan-e shirin.
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.