Qasida · 12th century

On the Tablet of Silence

Khaqaniخاقانی

مرا بر لوح خاموشی الف، ب، ت نوشت اول

On the tablet of silence he first wrote out my alphabet for me:

که درد سر زبان است و ز خاموشی است درمانش

the tongue is a headache, and silence is its cure.

نخست از من زبان بستد که طفل اندر نوآموزی

First he took my tongue from me, for a child at his first lessons

چو نایش بی‌زبان باید نه چون بربط زبان دانش

should be tongueless like the reed flute, not skilled in speech like the lute.

چو ماندم بی‌زبان چون نای جان در من دمید از لب

When I was left tongueless like the reed, he breathed a soul into me from his lips,

که تا چون نای سوی چشم رانم دم به فرمانش

so that, like the reed, I might send my breath to its eyes at his command.

چنان در بوته تلقین مرا بگداخت کاندر من

He so melted me in the crucible of his teaching that in me

نه شیطان ماند و وسواسش نه آدم ماند و عصیانش

no Satan was left with his whisperings, no Adam with his sin.

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

A note for readers

From the qasida known as Mir’at al-Safa, ‘The Mirror of Purity’, which opens ‘My heart is the old teacher, and I the child who learns its language’. In these couplets the heart, as teacher, schools the poet in silence: the first lesson is to give up speech, as the reed flute speaks only with the breath blown into it. The finger-holes of the reed are called its ‘eyes’ in Persian.