Qasida · 9th–10th century

The Mother of Wine

Rudakiرودکی

مادر می را بکرد باید قربان

The mother of wine must be made a sacrifice,

بچه او را گرفت و کرد به زندان

and her child taken from her and put in prison.

بچه او را ازو گرفت ندانی

But you cannot take her child away from her

تاش نکوبی نخست و زو نکشی جان

unless you first crush her and draw the life from her.

جز که نباشد حلال دور بکردن

Yet it is not lawful to part

بچه کوچک ز شیر مادر و پستان

a little child from its mother's milk and breast

تا نخورد شیر هفت مه به تمامی

until it has drunk her milk for seven whole months,

از سر اردیبهشت تا بن آبان

from the start of Ordibehesht to the end of Aban.

آنگه شاید ز روی دین و ره داد

Only then is it right, by faith and by justice,

بچه به زندان تنگ و مادر قربان

to put the child in a narrow prison, and sacrifice the mother.

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

A note for readers

The opening of Rudaki's longest surviving poem, a qasida of more than ninety couplets on Ganjoor. The 'mother' is the vine and her 'child' the grape: the poem follows the wine from the harvest into the jar, where it seethes and settles until it glows like ruby, then moves to a royal feast and the praise of Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Muhammad, ruler of Sistan. Ordibehesht and Aban are the second and eighth months of the Persian year, from spring to autumn.