The Scent of the Muliyan Stream
Rudakiرودکی
بوی جوی مولیان آید همی
The scent of the Muliyan stream comes to me,
یاد یار مهربان آید همی
the memory of a loving friend comes to me.
ریگ آموی و درشتی راه او
The sands of the Oxus and the roughness of its road
زیر پایم پرنیان آید همی
feel like silk beneath my feet.
آب جیحون از نشاط روی دوست
The waters of the Jayhun, rejoicing at the friend’s face,
خنگ ما را تا میان آید همی
come only up to the waist of our white horse.
ای بخارا! شاد باش و دیر زی
O Bukhara, be glad and live long:
میر زی تو شادمان آید همی
your prince is coming to you in joy.
میر ماه است و بخارا آسمان
The prince is the moon and Bukhara the sky:
ماه سوی آسمان آید همی
the moon is coming to the sky.
میر سرو است و بخارا بوستان
The prince is the cypress and Bukhara the garden:
سرو سوی بوستان آید همی
the cypress is coming to the garden.
A note for readers
These are the most famous of Rudaki’s surviving lines. According to an anecdote in Nezami Aruzi’s Chahar Maqala, written in the twelfth century, the Samanid ruler Nasr ibn Ahmad had lingered for years near Herat, and his homesick courtiers asked Rudaki to persuade him to return to Bukhara; on hearing this poem he is said to have set out for home at once. The Muliyan was a stream of Bukhara, and the Jayhun is the Oxus, the Amu Darya.
More poemsشعرهای دیگر
یک عمر می‌توان سخن از زلف یار گفت
در بند آن مباش که مضمون نمانده است
One could speak for a lifetime of the beloved’s tresses;
do not fret that there are no themes left.
A Lifetime on the Beloved’s Tresses
بلبلی برگ گلی خوش رنگ در منقار داشت
و اندر آن برگ و نوا خوش ناله‌های زار داشت
A nightingale held in its beak a rose petal of lovely colour,
and with that petal and its song it made sweet, piteous laments.
A nightingale held a rose petal
ستاره ای بدرخشید و ماه مجلس شد
دل رمیده ما را رفیق و مونس شد
A star shone out and became the moon of the gathering,
became friend and companion to our startled heart.