The Key to the Treasure
Nezami Ganjaviنظامی گنجوی
بسم‌الله الرحمن الرحیم
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful:
هست کلید در گنج حکیم
this is the key to the door of the treasure of the Wise.
فاتحه فکرت و ختم سخن
The opening of thought and the seal of speech
نام خدایست بر او ختم کن
is the name of God; let it be your ending too.
پیش‌وجود همه آیندگان
He was before the being of all who are to come,
بیش‌بقا‌ی همه پایندگان
and He outlasts all that endures.
A note for readers
The first couplets of The Treasury of Mysteries, the first poem of Nezami’s Khamsa. Its opening line is the Arabic formula ‘In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful’, which begins nearly every sura of the Quran, and Nezami calls it the key to the treasure, an apt image for a book named a treasury. Hakim, ‘the Wise’, can be read as a name of God or as ‘the sage’.
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.