The Green Cage of the Sky
Khaqaniخاقانی
گردون قفسی است سبز پر چشمه چو دام
The sky is a green cage, full of holes like a snare;
مرغان همه زین قفس پریدند مدام
all the birds fly from this cage, one after another.
دیری است در این قفس ندیده است ایام
For a long time now the days have not seen in this cage
یک مرغ چو من همای خاقانی نام
a single bird like me, a homa by the name of Khaqani.
A note for readers
A quatrain in which Khaqani boasts of his own rarity: every bird escapes the cage of the sky in the end, but none like him has been seen in it for ages. The homa is the legendary bird of good fortune whose shadow was said to make a man a king.
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.