Qasida · 11th–12th century

O Lords of Wealth, Take Warning

Sanaiسنایی

ای خداوندان مال الاعتبار الاعتبار

O lords of wealth, take warning, take warning!

ای خداخوانان قال الاعتذار الاعتذار

O you who call on God with words alone, ask pardon, ask pardon!

پیش از آن کاین جان عذر آور فرو میرد ز نطق

Before this soul that makes excuses falls silent, dead to speech,

پیش از آن کاین چشم عبرت بین فرو ماند ز کار

before this eye that sees the lesson stops working.

پند گیرید ای سیاهیتان گرفته جای پند

Take counsel, you in whom blackness has taken the place of counsel;

عذر آرید ای سپیدیتان دمیده بر عذار

bring your excuses, you whose whiteness has sprung up on your cheeks.

ای ضعیفان از سپیدی مویتان شد همچو شیر

O weak ones, your hair has turned as white as milk;

وی ظریفان از سیاهی رویتان شد همچو قار

O fine ones, your faces have turned as black as pitch.

پرده‌تان از چشم دل برداشت صبح رستخیز

The dawn of resurrection has lifted the veil from your heart’s eye;

پنبه تان از گوش بیرون کرد گشت روزگار

the turning of time has pulled the cotton from your ears.

تا کی از دارالغروری ساختن دارالسرور

How long will you make the house of delusion your house of joy?

تا کی از دارالفراری ساختن دارالقرار

How long will you make the house of flight your house of rest?

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

A note for readers

The opening of one of Sanai’s sermon-qasidas, a warning against pride and greed. Its refrains are Arabic: al-i‘tibar, ‘take warning’, and al-i‘tidhar, ‘ask pardon’. The black and white of the third and fourth couplets play on the black hair of youth, the white hair of age and the blackened face of disgrace. The excerpt gives the first six couplets of a long poem.