Qit'a · 9th–10th century

Life, Be It Short or Long

Rudakiرودکی

زندگانی چه کوته و چه دراز

Life, be it short or be it long,

نه به آخر بمرد باید باز؟

must we not die in the end after all?

هم به چنبر گذار خواهد بود

This rope will have to pass through the hoop,

این رسن را، اگرچه هست دراز

however long it may be.

خواهی اندر عنا و شدت زی

Live, if you like, in toil and hardship,

خواهی اندر امان به نعمت و ناز

or, if you like, in safety, comfort and ease;

خواهی اندک‌تر از جهان بپذیر

accept, if you like, less than the world,

خواهی از ری بگیر تا به طراز

or, if you like, take everything from Rey to Taraz:

این همه باد و بود تو خواب است

all this vanity and being of yours is a dream,

خواب را حکم نی، مگر به مجاز

and a dream holds no truth, except in seeming.

این همه روز مرگ یکسانند

On the day of death all these are the same;

نشناسی ز یک دگرشان باز

you cannot tell one from another.

From: The Poems of Rudaki
Translation: Persiahaus Editors
Source: Draft translation from the Ganjoor text
Persian text: Ganjoor

A note for readers

A fragment on death as the leveller, in Rudaki's plain and proverbial style. Whatever life holds, hardship or ease, a little or an empire stretching from Rey in central Iran to Taraz in Central Asia, it all comes to the same end. The image of the rope that must pass through the hoop compares a lifetime to a rope drawn through a ring: however long, its end comes through.