Timely Flight Is Victory
Obeyd Zakaniعبید زاکانی
«گریز بهنگام، پیروزی است»
‘Flight at the right time is victory’:
خنک پهلوانی کش این روزی است
happy the champion whose lot this is.
A note for readers
From the chapter on courage in the Ethics of the Aristocrats. Setting out the ‘chosen’ doctrine of the great men of his day, Obeyd argues that fighting is folly, since a man either kills and bears the guilt, or is killed; and so, he says, most heroes have made this couplet the inscription on their seal rings. He presents it as a saying, and it is not certain that he wrote it.
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.