The Tears of Khorasan
Anvariانوری
به سمرقند اگر بگذری ای باد سحر
If you pass by Samarkand, O morning breeze,
نامهٔ اهل خراسان به بر خاقان بر
carry the letter of the people of Khorasan to the Khan:
نامه ای مطلع آن رنج تن و آفت جان
a letter whose opening is pain of body and ruin of soul,
نامه ای مقطع آن درد دل و سوز جگر
a letter whose close is heartache and a burning liver;
نامه ای بر رقمش آه عزیزان پیدا
a letter on whose lines the sighs of dear ones show,
نامه ای در شکنش خون شهیدان مضمر
a letter in whose folds the blood of martyrs lies hidden;
نقش تحریرش از سینهٔ مظلومان خشک
the ink of its writing dried on the breasts of the oppressed,
سطر عنوانش از دیدهٔ محرومان تر
the lines of its address wet with the eyes of the deprived.
ریش گردد ممر صوت ازو گاه سماع
The throat is wounded by it when it is read aloud;
خون شود مردمک دیده ازو وقت نظر
the pupil of the eye turns to blood when it is read.
A note for readers
This qasida, known in English as ‘The Tears of Khorasan’, appeals to the khan who ruled at Samarkand to rescue Khorasan after the Ghuzz tribes defeated the Seljuk sultan Sanjar in 1153 and laid waste its cities. It is found in Anvari’s Divan. The excerpt gives the first five couplets.
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.