RNING AND MELTING BEING THE SUZ-U-GUDAZ OF MU- HAMMAD RIZA NAUT OF KHABU- SHAN TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY MIRZA Y. DAWUD OF PERSIA AND ANANDA K. COOMARAS\WAMY OF CEYLON
di
i Br a
BURNING AND MELTING BEING THE SUZ-U-GUDAZ OF MU-
‘HAMMAD RIZA NAU‘I OF KHABU-
SHAN TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY MIRZA Y. DAWUD OF PERSIA AND ANANDA K. COOMARASWAMY OF CEYLON
For who considreth every del, It may be lykned wonder wel, The peyne of love, unto a fere. Geoffrey Chaucer.
For the Cherub with his flaming sword is hereby commanded to leave his guard at the Tree of Life, and when he does, the whole creation will be CONSUMED andappear INFINITE,whereas it now appears finite and corrupt.
Wilham Blake.
To give up life for the August One, is the high- est duty, the highest joy. ‘fapanese.
For those who are of the fellowship of Love, it is very easy indeed to go alive into the Fire because of love.
Nauti.
Pa, he Near BO, ¥
BURNING AND MELTING translated by Dawud and Coomaraswamy,
1912. Erratum. P.3,1.6 for 1506 read 1606. FOREWORD The poem, Stiz-u-gudaz, here translated was written by Muhammad Riza Naa‘iat the request of Prince Daniyal, son of the great Akbar, not ie long after the death of the latter, that is, about 1506A.D. The author, a Persian of Khabishan near Mashhad, went to India in the time of Ak- bar, and found a patron in Mirza Yusaf Khan Mashhadi, but soon after entered the service of the Khankhanan Mirza ’Abd ur-Rahim, and stayed with him and Prince Daniyal at Burhan- pir, where he died, A.H. 101g (A.D. 1610).+ The present version is based on a literal rend- ering prepared for me by Mirza Y. Dawud, of Persia, to whom I am greatly indebted for it ; in many places his wording is retained, but, I who am innocent of Persian, alone am responsible for the final form, which is intended to convey the matter and spirit of the original as faithfully as possible. I am also responsible for almost all the notes. I came across this book while studying Indian paintings in the British Museum collec- tion, where those which are purely Indian, those which are purely Persian, and those which, like the three which illustrate the Ms, Or. 2839
+ British Museum, Supplementary Catalogue of Persian MSS. p. 674.
3
Blank Page Digitally Inserted
FOREWORD
The poem, Siiz-u-gudaz, here translated was written by Muhammad Riza Nai‘iat the request of Prince Daniyal, son of the great Akbar, not long after the death of the latter, that is, about 1506A.D. The author,a Persian of Khabashan near Mashhad, went to India in the time of Ak- bar, and found a patron in Mirza Yuasaf Khan Mashhadi, but soon after entered the service of the Khankhanan Mirza ’Abd ur-Rahim, and stayed with him and Prince Daniyal at Burhan- pir, where he died, A.H. 101g (A.D. 1610). The present version is based on a literal rend- ering prepared for me by Mirza Y. Dawud, of Persia, to whom I am greatly indebted for it ; in many places his wording is retained, but, I who am innocent of Persian, alone am responsible for the final form, which is intended to convey the matter and spirit of the original as faithfully as possible. I am also responsible for almost all the notes. I came across this book while studying Indian paintings in the British Museum collec- tion, where those which are purely Indian, those which are purely Persian, and those which, like the three which illustrate the Ms, Or. 2839
‘+ British Museum, Supplementary Catalogue of Persian MSS. p. 674.
3
which forms the main text of this translation, may properly be described as Mughal, are all to be sought forin the Persian catalogues. The follow- ing other MSS. have also been consulted: B.M. MSS. Or. 325, Or. 1860, ADD. 6634, and ADD. 10587. The three pictures in the MS. Or. 2839 are here reproduced in the size of the originals. They are of a good Mughal type, but not the best. M. Blochet has published a reproduction of an illustration of the last scene, in the Persian style, of the late seventeenth century, froma manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale.*
* Peintures de M.S. Arabes, Persans et Turcs de la Biblothéque Nationale, Paris, n.d.
Further information about Nau‘i 1s given in Ouseley’s ‘ Bugraphical Notices’, pp. 161-166, and Bloch- mann’s Ain-i-Akbari p.606. Ouseley remarks of the present work, which he names ‘ Burning and Con- suming’ ; “A most affecting romance, composed on the true and tragical event of a lovely Hindu princess, who, in the prime of youth and beauty, became a Sati, that is, burned herself on the funeral pyre with her deceased husband....” He also says : “the force and passtonate fire of his (Nau‘i’s) expressions quite fascinated his royal patron (Prince Dantyal) who often repeated the following stanza of the tragic conclusion of the sad tale :—‘with such devoted love and enthusiasm did she ascend the blazing throne, that the devouring element, subdued by her heroism, seemed to shrink from injuring her.’”
4 7
4 The style of Nau‘i’s poem, like that of most Persian poetry, is extremely artificial, The lengthy invocations and extravagant eulogies are rather wearisome, and the elaborate euphu- isms which occur even in the most tragic des- criptions, are often annoying. We have, how- ever, to attune ourselves to the language, not to allow its mannerisms to distract us. If we so attune ourselves, we cannot fail to be moved by the evident sincerity of the poet’s burning phrases, which rise in places to heights of elo- quence that are made doubly effective by the contrast of the passionate story with the flowery language.
It is scarcely necessary to remark that the poet writes throughout as Sufi, and finds in this burn- ing human love a symbol of the affection of the soul towards God: for him all pure Love is one and the same thing, the realisation of Unity. “One matter of special interest may be re- marked upon, that is, the nature of Prince Daniyal’s commission to the poet. ‘We are weary, he says, ‘of the old songs: nobody cares now for Shirin and Farhad, for Laila and Maj- nin. Sing of what we have ourselves seen and heard.’
This attitude is expressive of the characteristic psychology of the Mughals. The Prince’s words exactly reflect the tendencies which are equally clearly recognizable in Mughal paint-
5
ing—an interest in the present moment, in what is going on, in individual character and romance. Weary of the rather insipid, or at least, hack- neyed types of Persian art, the Mughal Painters developed an already great tradition of portrait- ure, in the direction of increased actuality. In | just the same way, the Mughal litterateur’s first interest lay in the compilation of histories and memoirs. These tendencies rather sharply di- vide the Mughal culture, throughout, from the Persian on the one hand, and the Hindu on the other. The Mughal spirit is active, alert, en- quiring, open-minded, secular. The Mughals were realists, ina very modern sense. Only the perfection of their taste, the splendour and re- finement of their environment, preserved their art from the banality of modern realism ; for it represented no reality which was not obvious to everyone. It represented what all men had “themselves seen and heard.”
“The purpose of this English rendering is to make real to those to whom they have been in- credible, the perfection of the Indian woman’s ideal, and the unifying truth of the religion of Love in whatever form it appears.
I say advisedly, the Indian woman’s ideal, and not the Indian ideal of womanhood, though the two are ultimately the same, because | do not think that the character of the Indian, or the Oriental woman generally, is a man-made thing,
6
or a thing made, in any sense of artificial shaping, at all ; it is the essential character of women, as it finds expression wherever a sufficiently serious, religious and esthetic culture permitsit. Whether or nosome men,or society in general at any partic- ular time, perpetuated it for selfish reasons, it is certain that nomen by themselves could have in- itiated it. Morestill: loveisso great a power, for the lover so much greater than reason,that even in modern Europe there could be found those who would follow love beyond the grave, if such self- abandoment were sanctioned by law and custom. 4 I hope some day to devote an entire book to the status of the Indian woman. Here I shall refer only to that aspect of her devotion which leads her to prefer death by fire to life alone. The first of all the satis, whose name was Sati, the wife of Siva, fell dead when she might no longer bear to hear her father’s curses of Siva (according to a Rajas- thaniversion sheentered fire) ; since then it issaid of all those women who surrender their life si- lently, or take it by violence, for the sake of Love, that ‘they become Sati’. In so doing, Indian wo- men share a glory which has belonged to the wo- men of many other heroic races. Amongst the Vikings many hundred such cases are known to have occurred.*
Brynhild is the type of these. That exemplar of
Amazonian women, Shield-may and Victory-
* Saga Book of the Viking Club, Vol. VI, pt.2, 1910. 7
wafter, when Sigurd died, slew herself, in spite of all the prayers of Gunnar,* saying:— ‘‘How then when the flames flare upward may I be left behind? How then may the road he wendeth be hard for my feet to find? How then in the gates of Valhall may the door of the gleaming ring Clash to on the heel of Sigurd, as I follow on my King?” So our own Sati answers: ‘““Now that I have found him alone, undisturbed by strangers, Oh, what a disgrace! Oh, what a shame! to leave him. ‘Till death I will not take away my hand ‘eles the hem of his garment; my heart is very steadfast, even if I should waver! “Tf I donot follow the path of devotion to the end, how shall I answer Love at the Judgment day?” The same temper inspiredthe heroines of Ireland. When Conchubar had slain Naoisi, Deirdre refused all his offers of protection and riches, saying : “‘] will not go up to his house, for it is not land * << Uprose Gunnar, and laid his arms about her neck, and besought her to live and have wealth from him; and all others in like wise letted her from dying; but she thrust them all from her, and said that tt was not the part of any to let her in that which was her will” (Volsunga). 8
ree
ii na ee FOE FE I OLE TL
=_—— i
or earth or food I am wanting, or gold or silver or horses, but leave to go to the grave where the sons of Usnach are lying... .
_ “Do not break the strings of my heart, as you
took hold of my young youth, Conchubar ; though my darling is dead, my love is strong to live.”
And afterwards she killed herself with a knife, saying :
‘Since the other is not with me now, I will spend no more of my lifetime without him”. Baba Dinesh Chandra Sen, in his “ History of Bengali Language and Literature,” quotes two cases of sati, witnessed and described by English officials; in both cases the widow resisted all attempts atdissuasion. One,in order to prove that she well understood what she was about to do, held one of her fingers in the flame of a lamp, without a tremor, until it was burnt to a cinder. Being given permission after this proof of her determination, she ascended the pyre, “laying herself down on her side with her face in her hands like one composing herself to sleep. . . Until the flames drove me back I stood near enough to touch the pile, but I heard no sound and saw no motion, except one gentle upheaving of the brushwood over the body, after which all was still” (from Sir F. Halliday’s account).
In all these cases it is in spite of the urgent
- 9
pleadings and protest of men that women have tak- en their own life; it has been done deliberately and willingly, and supported by unanswerable argu- ments from the victim herself.; These argu- ments, addressed to men, deny, inalanguage ofal- most aggressive feminism,their right to interfere. Said Brynhild that it was ‘no one’s business to hin- der her in doing what she would.’ The widowed mother of Harsha replied to her son: “I am the lady of a great house. . have you forgotton that I am the lioness-mate of a great spirit, who, like a lion, had his delight in a hundred battles?” *
‘+ Compare the Tamil Pura Naniru, 246,255,256. One sati replies to “those of wisdom full,” 1. e. the Brahmans whowould dissuade her :“The pyre’s black logs heaped up in burning ground to you indeed seem terrible; to us, since our mighty spouse is dead, the waters of the pleasant lake, where spreads the lotus- flower, and the fierce fires are one.”
Another widow asks, with childishly simple words, to share her hero’s grave: O Potter, shaper of theurn,. . Over many a desert plain I’ve fared with him, make wide enough the funeralurn to take me too.” For fuller translation of these lyrics, see ‘Tamilian Antiquary,’ No. 6,1910,p.41. In No. 246, fear of the hard- ships of a widow’ s life is a contributing motive.
* Bana’s Harsha Charita, Gh. V., translation by E. B. Cowell, and F.W. Thomas. The whole of the chapter, with its symbolism of blood and fre, recalls the present work.
10
Our own sati answers to the remonstrances of Prince Daniyal,“Do not annoy, do not annoy, do not annoy.” We have no reply to what they say —what may a goaler answer to the prisoner who asks only for one thing, and that, freedom ?—but may only wonder, and feel ashamed, like Nau‘, because of the coldness of our own hearts.
It is possible, indeed certain, that this sacrifice, originally so noble, became in some, perhaps even in many cases, an unwilling one. Society impos- ed upon some who did not seek it of their own will, this fiery death. Baba Dinesh Chandra Sen, for instance, quotes a ghastly instance of a widow who managed to escape from the pyre, but was brought back by force, tied hand and foot, and burnt. The glory of possessing a sati amongst one’s ancestors became a matter for family emu- lation ; it was sometimes even felt to bea test of respectability that the widow should burn herself with her husband’s body ; and in such cases, not only was force employed by individuals, but the aid of garbled texts from the religious books was enlisted to justify the barbarity. Small wonder then that Raja Ram Mohun Royled and success- fully carried on an agitation, which led tothe legal suppression of Sati by proclamation of theEnglish Government, in 1829. It was needful to prevent the possibility of any such occurrences; for to retain the form, without the spirit, in such a sacri- fice, must have been infinitely degrading to all
i |
« dat
concerned. Wecannot however,pronounce upon the right or wrong of the voluntary sati. It would be an insult and a stupidity beyond words to en- quire if Emer was ‘doing right’ or ‘committing sin’ whenshe “would not stay living after Cuchul- lin”. Weare in the presence of great forces that sweep like ocean currents around and throughour being ; and when foramoment these forces com- pletely submerge the egoism of any individual— when the Moth is burnt in the Candle—we are but told in tragic circumstance how Loveand Life are incompatibleand antithetic. Foritisthesame desire of Union, the same impatience of separa- tion, that leads the Sannyasi to the forest and the Sati to the flames. We cannot talk of right or wrong, because this call when it comes, is irre- sistible. ‘To quarrel or misunderstand is to rate material life above the freedom of the spirit.
4A part from its greater qualities,this little book is of profound interest as a contribution to our knowledge of the psychology of the attitude of the Musulman rulers of Northern India in the time of great Akbar, towards the Hindus and the Hindu faith. These Hindus were for the orthodox Mus- ulman, and are spoken of in the present work as, idolatersand infidels; notwithstanding which we find in this poem a spirit not merely of tolerance but ofdeep insight and sympathy. Had that spirit of sympathetic understanding endured, how diff- erent might have been the end of the Mughal
12
governance in India; and had it been reborn in later times, how different might have been the nature of the bond which now unites the rulers and the ruled, in that, to the former, unknownland. The bond which till yesterday was said to bethesword, might have been one of love. It is possible that such a bond might yet be forged, a more lasting bond than any political connection; only possible, however, if Englishmen might learn,what Akbar knew, that thesecret of greatnessinaruler, isto be
_ one with the religion and the people, that is, not
merely to tolerate, but to freely accept and person- ally embody, their highest intuitions. Only those can be said to rule by divine right, who thus rule not only the bodies, but also the hearts, of their people.
The false beliefamongst Western nations, that thestatus of the Indian woman is an inferior one, has done much to hold the East and West apart. In this little book we may see that one of those very customs to which the Western reformer would point as proof of their servitude and de- gradation, could be accepted by Asiatic conquer-. ors of a faith not lessintolerant than Christianity, as proof of their greatness; it could be a means of interpreting the heart of the Hindu to the heart ofthe Musulman. Both understood thelan guage of Love,and this understanding could remove all other barriers. Is it too much to hope that this same story, now doneinto English, may win from
r3
Western readers some tribute of wonder and of sympathy for the ardent spirit and high courage of the Indian woman, whose temper of absolute devotion and fearlessness is not different from that which has inspired all heroic women in the world.
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy.
London, January, 1912.
PRAISE OF GOD
In the name of Allah, the merciful, the compas-
sionate !
O my God, let my laughter be as the sound of
- groans, and make of my glowing heart a cup
full of tears :
Let my breath express the grief of my heart, and my eyes ever look upon Thee.
If there be indeed any miracles or inspiration besides Love, O purify my heart of all of them : Give to my heart the song of the nightingale, and refresh the rose of my garden with the fire of Love.
Grant methewineof‘Candle’fromthecupofLove, so that ever the Mothof love may haunt my lips: Temper the sword of my tongue with fire, that nothing may spring from it, save only Thy praise.
Grant me a pen from the tree of life, that I may write naught else but letters of thanks and praise to Thy name:
Then, in Thy mercy, take hold of my hand, for I am an innocent child and cannot write aught without breaking the pen.
Make the sound of my pen like the sweet tune of the flute, and grant to my words persuasion and savour:
Give to my words a speaking head, and graci- ously crown it with the mother-of-books.’
‘
To praise Thy name is so precious a thing, that I am inwardly glowing therewith from the tongue to the heart !
The foot which delays for love of the rose, will not move on for the sake of wealth.
I to be able to praise Thee! Oh, dust on my tongue, and mourning robes on my patience !
One such as I is unworthy to give Thee praise, verily I am not worthy to praise Thee :
How may I offer Thee thanks and praise with my stammering speech and tongue-tied words? Better, then, that I break the pen,—so littleis my wit,—and turn to my tale.
O God, make sad my spirit, and burn up thesight of my eyes, because of the coldness of my heart : If one should dig with his finger nails in iron and stone, he would discover some spark in them : But, Alas, my wretched heart is neither of iron — nor stone (but of colder stuff ):
Woe is me for such a heart! May my tongue remember it not, may it be my enemies’ portion : Far better it were that my body should return to clay, than that blood should flow in sucha heart ! Ah, may such hearts be the portion of crows and ravens !
In place of that cold heart, do Thou grant me a heart like the Moth’s or the Salamander’s,
One burning with love, piercing each particle of the soul, one glowing and pricking the tongue, a heart like the crying nightingale’s mate.
16
Make my heart the prey of the rose, yea, of the fowler who snares the nightingale :
One glowing from head to foot like a flame of fire, yet covered about with a screen as a lantern : Let it show forth from its cover the brands of Union upon its heart, that the Moth may ever seek its light.
Give me a heart of the colour and savour of the rose, not like the body of water and clay create:
- A heart overflowing with love, with a hundred
lives to welcome home Love. Make me so drunk with a cup of Life, that none
‘may bear with my drunkenness save Thee alone:
Ah, wipe from my brow the furrows of grief, and make it more bright than the cup itself. Establish my welfare in every business, and set the knot of my heart in all my work.
Oh! grant to my headacrown of the bed of afflic- tion, and tomy lips to drink of the cup of sorrow: Ah! what a bed! the chamber of the Sun and Moon; and what a cup! a goblet like Jamshid’s own.’
Let persecution be the wine of my understand- ing, and affliction the flower of my bosom :
Let every reproach that honour disdains and avoids be mine, for my love requires them. *
Ah, pour out the gospel of knowledge into my cup, and make of my head a tavern of Love. Give me good-tidings from the tavern of Tur, where neither sobriety nor drunkenness are
ty
known :*
When it’s shadow is cast in the cup, it appears that fire has been set in the censer.
I and Nau‘i are two repentant children, like the mirror, pure in heart :
So pure has Love made our hearts, that if others do wrong, its blame rests on us.° | Ah, do Thou efface the image of others from the tablet of every heart, and most graciously for- give to us the faults of others.
The night is dark, and my guide is blind; do Thou Thyself grant me some bright beam : [llumine my heart with the ray of Unity, and by way of revelation teach me Thy Holy Will. Grant to my heart the vision of Eternity, and do Thou mercifully aid me to obey Thy call:
O, support me till the ascension of my belief, and show me a door that leads to the threshold of Thy Messenger.
18
PRAISE OF MUHAMMAD
Muhammad is the brightness of the mirrors of sight, and he the Exemplar of the eye of creation! The intercessor of crimes is he, and a most sufh- cient treasure for the world of poverty !
The nurse of the bosom-flower of Truth, and the bearer of the banner of law.
Heaven is a garland of flowers on the side of his cap, and earth the Moth of the Candle of his look ;
He has surpassed every prophet in honour, and such is his superiority that he is named of the kindred of God.
For witness of his might and the wonders he wrought, suffice to say that he was and isa guide both those who went before and to those who shall come after him.
The tongue is the treasury of the proverbs of his praise, and wisdom was begotten of her mother only that he might be praised.
The tongue has not eloquence to tell of his glory, it cannot be right to praise him except in the heart:
How should he be praised as befits his worth ? None but God can praise him aright.
I have no share in the land of renown, and as an outlander, O Messenger of Allah, am [ an alien: Thou shalt find none more friendless than I, whose friends are the neighbours of his enemies.
19
Ah, grant me some green herbage from Thy field of mercy, and do thou make my green grass heaven-like by Thy bountiful look !’
If my faults do not merit Thy intercession, and if there be no pardon for such a poor and needy one,
It suffices for me that I am of those who are ashamed of their many sins, and am a lover of the Chief of the Nations :
I wear a flower of thy dayspring, and I bear the brand of thy obedience, O thou Divine.
20
COMMANDS OF PRINCE DANIYAL.
It was a night that had washed its countenance with the rose-water of dawn, and like a fair face adorned itself with the reflection of the sun:
It was as pleasant as the visage of the well-belov- ed, heart-ravishing as the love of the beloved. More broad were its brows than the bosom of the drunkard, and more delightful than the flower- beds in a garden:
Endued with the spring, like the house-roof and door of a friend,
Very fragrant with rose-water, likethe bed-cham- ber of the beloved.
With fragrant flowers wasthe world adorned and | the heaven-bright radiance of the earth threw shadows on the moonlight ;
The earth, by the multitude of its lights, and the firmament by the abundance of its stars lit up every place like a gay bazar.
The zephyr of the river, the breezes from the rose- beds, and the delight of the moonlight perpetually washed from every eye the surma of sleep : Gladness had closed the way to sorrow ; on such a night, indeed, the world gave birth to the Son of Peace.
The world was a feast well served with wine, its drunken revellers reclining.
On a night so still, the heart and I were awake, we both were forgetful of self and drunk with
21
the cup of meeting-the-friend ; °
The eyes expected a visit, every hair-root was upraised in longing, while desire in the heart and thought in the mind were silent.
Of a sudden, at so still an hour, the sound of the knocker was heard, anda melody came to my ears, Such that though it came from without, yet its source was within my heart.°
Then was the door set ajar,and there blew through that opening a breeze of sweet bari ep as from a bosom friend:
Because of that sweet fragrance, which was tomy nostrils the best of all perfumes, my mind was transported to the midst of a hundred verdant gardens.
I opened the latch of the door with my eyelashes, and bade the bringer of good tidings enter in: Lo! there came into my house a very hoopoe, Ah, what a one, a pea-cock of paradise !
His was a sweet sugar-lip like a parrot, and be- ginning to speak, he said:
“© thou of Majnin temper, and like to a hun- dred Farhads, behold, the evening of sorrow has passed away, and eened is the morning of joy!” “The youthful King, of happy fortune, has called for thee ; add going to sitting, and lose no time, <iMaedlccth the sleepy foot, for a drowsy one loses the way:
“Thou art impatient in service,and the king much desirous, of a surety your fortune is boundless.”
22
While yet the messenger of good tidings was speaking, my burning desire was kissing the king’s door,
So deep was my longing that even at home I forget my foot,
I rose from my seat so hastily that there came to my hand not my foot but my head!
I rode on my head likeacrown on the throne, and head and crown together I drove to the nek of the King.
From the place of sorrow in the West, to the place of gladness in the East, I journeyed in less than the twinkling of an eye.
When I reached the threshold of that crowned be- ing, every place twixt heaven and earth was the place of adoration!
So much wasastonishment added to my surprise, that I was as if I had never been,
So much did my head with adoration strive, that it lost its crown amidst the prostrations!
At the command of the fortunate King of kings, that pavilion of the skiesand throne of the moon, most fortunate flame of the lamp of the throne, Theservants of the King, when they saw me wor- shipping, everyone, like my fortune, ran hastily towards me from before and behind:
They raised me up like a jewel from the ground, and embraced my head as if it had been a crown of gold:
They dusted my eyelashes with their lips,and bore
23
me in their hands to the king, like a fragrant off- ering of flowers.
They set me upon a high seat, which made my composure to fly away;
Everything seemed to me strange, and heaped surprise on surprise,
Yea, the wine of the cup of ecstasy had gone tomy head, for I had not known that it should be set in a place of worship.
The sun-flower Prince Daniyal himself, when he saw me lowly bent, rose up from hisseat, and with his own hand lifted me up:
Beholding mespeechless, hesmiled upon me, and
applied to my fainting heart the rose-water of 7
glad-tidings,
Saying, “O Brahman-Zada of Love, and disciple of old of the master of Affection,
“Thou art of the race of the nightingale and the lover of the rose, aremembrancer indeed ofa hun- dred gardens and nightingales.
‘““W hosoever is a singer of the tune of Love, does he allow any other thing to enter his heart, save the song of Love?
“The old songs weary my heart, they cast dia- mond-dust on the heart of the lover,
‘““How long must we read thetale of the Nightin- gale and the Moth? and how long shall these dreams suffice us?
“It is better far to hear noneat all than toread these wearisome tales:
24
Le —————————_— -—_- i — ss ee
“Tf we read at all, let it be what we have seen and
beheld ourselves.
“O thou spring-bird of happiness, make verdant thy tongue with this new story of love:
“Sing anew song with thy sweet voice, sothat the flower may melt in the flower and the thorn in the thorn.
“The love-story of Farhad and Shirin has grown old and lost its savour, like the remains of a feast, or last year’s almanack:
““Nought of Laila remains on the tongue of the people,save only thename;and of Majnan nought amongst men but a few letters.
*“O come, walk beside the temple of fire, and con- sider the temple and its idol-institutes. ” **Behold how lovely and edifying is this worship of fire, which burns all the dross of existence and makes pure the flower of being.
“Behold how many, both men and women, have done well to free themselves from the attachments of life, freely burning themselves on the flames of the fire,
““Neglecting all and everything except Love, all they like wood have acquainted themselves with burning.
“When the life of a man is gone out, he is no longer a man, but becomes as the thorns that are thrown with good will in the furnace.
“Behold, how the people burn the clay of their body in the fire, and purify the light of their soul:
Cc 25
‘“‘ But here is the most occasion for wonder, that after the death of men, women show forth their marvellous passion :
‘Even from the fire they withdraw not the hem of their zeal, and bravely sit in the midst of the flames.
“They illumine their faces with the Salaman- der’s cup, and freely burn themselves for the sake of a corpse: -
“They are face to face even in death, and sleep soundly together in the bed of fire.
‘Less strange it were if any true lover should burn himself for his beloved as a proof; but the banner of amazement extends to ’Ayiiq that a living beloved allows herself to be burned for the sake of a lover already dead !
“Yea, this is the highest renunciation, to sacri- fice life and lay hold of Love,
“«‘ Ah, Nau‘, none may have rest while he or she loves; the more you relate of such matters, the more is Love able to work.
“Oh, thou Moth of nightingale sweetness, make our hearts to bleed, and the blossom of fire to open, “Create for me a new-spring of fire, and light such a torch with thy pen as shall entrance every heart.
“With the speech of these times and anew-made pen shalt thou delight and gladden our ears, so much that all old stories shall be forgotten.” When these words ofinspiration reached my ears,
26
=
‘<I hear and obey,” answered the Jibra’il of my understanding ; “
Forthwith I took off from the words their covers, and plunged my tongue heart-deep in the ocean of their significance.
After much struggling there came to my hand a doorway of hope, and I was glad to be no more empty-handed :
Now, when I bring the jewel that I have found, tothe market place, no buyer is there but myself! I have spread upon the paper a blazing bright- ness and have set jewels in its lines of fire. Drunk with the wine of Love, I journeyed on a road where none else has travelled, the journey of a year I accomplished in a week.
When this sad and burning poem of love was imagined and set down, the miraculous pen did name it “The love song of Siz-u-Gudaz, of Burn- ing and Melting.”
Ah God, do thou exalt the head of that rare hidden Virgin whose purity exceeded that of the Houris,
Do Thou endear her to the first-kissing of her King, and graciously accept her sacrifice.
=f
I. OF THE REIGN OF AKBAR.
O thou that art attached to the pretence of Love, - come that I may make you to taste of the true Love!
Thou dost burn thy lips with the name of fiery- love, while thy heart is cold as the children’s mark. »
Thy lips light a fire with the name of Love, while thy heart is ill-roasted meat :
It is shame to utter the name of Love with such lips, and most unmeet to give the name of heart to such heart as thine ! ?
Seek thou the song of Love from the nightin- gale, and if thou doest not this, yet learn it from me;
I bring forth from my heart such a song of love to my lips, that my lips forthwith are made to flow with blood like my heart ;
I touch the key-note of such a mode, that it makes fire to issue from water and water from fire ; To such an air do I sing my song, that the ears are become a garden of fruits:
Ah, make yourself ear from tip to toe, be wholly the ear of thy heart, and yield up your blood to the sword of my tongue !
It was in the reign of the Jesus-learned Shah, from whom did Jesus learn his wisdom,”
Lord of the world, the just king, whose com- mands were obeyed in every quarter,
28 |
AT ea
Whose estate was as high as the heaven, and his cattle and servants as the multitude of stars, Compared with whose pomp and grandeur, the assembly of judgment day would not have been greater than some insignificant procession, Whoby the sword of theday-spring and thesign of watching had conquered both heaven andearth: He was a precious jewel, yea, the whole green sea, his name was Akbar, ‘Allah is the possessor of glory’.
He the most wise of all the faithful believers in God, himself a teacher of gratitude and exemplar of all the thankless,
Side by side with his Majesty, he adopted with- al the habit of dervishes, and joined himself to the company of those who by their deeds lead others to the Truth.
If by way of oppression an ant was trampled under foot, he with his own royal arm would grant it wings and plumes,
Ifa thorn did prick the foot of any, he applied to it ointment with his own hands.
In his time no child was ever born of despair, and were it so, it died ere birth:
So was his reign without any danger, and even in drunkenness there was no risk.
In his glorious reign the folk were lusty and young by reason of wine; surely the achieve-
‘ment of Yusif belongs to his time ! ”
Indeed his reign was a season of paradise, and it
“y
were better for those who did not rejoice in song nor utter their thankfulness, that their tongues had been cut away.
The desert everywhere bloomed, and nowhere grew aught but the herbage of his praise !
In such a delightful and verdant spring, there lay not even the smallest particle of dust on the heart of any dweller on earth
Save Nau‘i, whose desire was the martyr of disappointment because of his unworthy heart.
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Il. THE DESIRE OF THE LOVERS.
' Thus then the poet touched thestring of the story, that in such a season of peace, two lovers were sorely wounded by Love:
Two children of the Hindus, of angelic nature, yet in sooth but human, from childhood sucked the milk of love-longing and were fed and reared in the cradle of love.
They had broken the pen of the letters of Love and Beauty long before their own birth,
Like Love and Beauty they were affianced from childhood, as wont was in the world; and like Shaikh San’an they held their desirein check and gave constancy for love and love for constancy.” Even when in the cradle they heard the news of affiance, their desire for Union did suck the milk of Love;
In childhood they bore the sign of friendship upon their brows, and their eyes ever shone in the garden of seeing and meeting each other. And for that their desire was great and their hearts impatient they would secretly converse together: While such parlement endured the heart and eyes of each were fixed on whatsover the other wrought, and their wishes were the warden of their pleasant market.
They were ever straining their patience; secretly and openly they were acquainted.
When the palm-tree of wishes yielded not the
31
fruit of their desire, they were fain to accomplish even one of a hundred wished for meetings : Because of their tender age they knew not what step to take,and because of their little experience, if one day was spent in Severance they reckoned ita year.”
With a hundred finger-nails they destroyed the foundations of their life and made of them bricks to stay their growing :”
But when the palm-grove of their wishes grew green, their desire of Union grew stronger an hundred times,
Their intent was to worship the fire[of Love], and their eyes shed blood because of Severance: they both together sweetly sang
““How long shall we twain be empty-breasted of each other, and may not drink of Unity and be drunken therewith?
“Unbearable is it to us to dwell alone any more, for there is none may live and be only save God the One!
“Far better it were indeed, to lay over the head the bricks of the grave,than to lay that head ona lonely pillow!
“The season of youth is like the very zephyr of early spring, and eke like the colour and savour of the rose:
“Tf you have found it, I shall kiss your understand- ing and say Well done! but if you neglect it, ‘Alas, Alas, for you!’
32
“So long as we have no part in such soul-ravishing breezes of Union, we are strangers to the season of spring and of roses:
“Ah! that Death might become the fellow of such unhappy Life, for these hours of Severance are unworthy of honour.”
33
III]. THE TROUBLED LOVER REVEALS THE SECRET OF HIS HEART TO HIS FATHER.
As the waiting years became more than ten, the banner of forbearance was lowered on every hand: The onset of Loveso pressed its foot on the heart, that patience was slain beneath the foot of desire: Sosoon as from the breast of longing such a blaze was lit, the son recited this tale in the ear of his aged father :
“Food and sleep are distasteful to me and my patience is ended by reason of Severance from my beloved,
“Do sian essay to restore my broken hewn since,
because of the force of the grief-flood I may no longer keep its secret hidden.
““Grant forthwith that my heart desires, Lo! soon shall desire and heart die together !
“Grant me tolivetogether with my beloved in one house, and give leave to my Candle to become as the Moth:
“‘Dothou answer my unattained desires by deeds, else shall I enter in at the door of sin.
““God forbid! Ishall be astrangerto the faith and become the profaner alike of the Idol and the temple and I shall set ablaze thy Suminat and Mahmalat too. ™
‘<I shall make the face of the Idol to be pierced like my heart, and the temple bare of its images.
34
“<T shall tie the old gong of the temple to the legs of a camel as one does with small bells,
‘With thetemple lamps I shall burnevery sacred thread, and I shall wash the sandal-paste from the cheeks of the idols,
‘‘T shall steal from all hearts the love of idols and sew up every eye from beholding the images in the most holy places,
“‘T shall cast off the faith of Brahmans, and I shall repent and ask forgiveness for past infidelity.
“J shall seek my desire from the Ka’ba of Islam, and I shall be satisfied with the sweetness of mar- tyrdom.”” :
* When he had poured all these words in the ear of his aged father, it was as if the clouds of the sky poured fire on dry grass,
He applied a lance to his heart by the way of his ears, so that he fainted and came again to himself. Thinking it vain to reply to his son, his answer was silently to search for a cure for his grief :
To seek for the remedy he arose and girded the loins of his soul and bound his soul about his waist. Fearing the ways of the ebon sky, the same even- ing hemadearrangements for the marriage feast:™ Every resource of his mind, more than the eye of sense imagined, he brought forward at once to advance the affair ; one Joseph-like of each kind of goods he fetched to the market.
He decked his desire with an hundred orna- ments of Love and all was purveyed far better than
39
he had thought might be.
No sooner had he burnished the treasure cham- ber of his heart from every petty thought, than he sent a eligi of gladness to the maiden’s house, saying :
“<O ie whose —— isadorned by thy beauty,be- hold, the groom is coming to his bridal chamber, “Do you also purvey all things for the marriage feast, making abundance and bringing forth a new season of spring in the world,
“And adorn both earth and sky with the jewels of gladness and rejoicing.”
Now the maiden’s kindred had forgotten the affairs of the world, expecting the clouds of wait- ing to pour down rain,—rain laden with jewels. But as soon as they heard that joyful sound, the doors of their hearts were opened to a hundred Paradises.
Dancers, in their delight, knew not their heads from their feet, and for gladness and joy their lips could not retrits from laughter.
As soon as the Sugar-lip heard the glad tidings of marriage, she arose and adorned herself with her own beautiful eyes:
She tied the lappet of her skirt about her waist, like the hands of a lover about the neck of the beloved:
She came out of the house like a blossoming gar- den of roses, and with the lappet of her skirt she wiped her lovely face.
36
For that garden of roses had been asleep, as the rose-bush sleeps when it thirsts for water or sighs for refreshing breezes:
No eye had ever seen her rose-fair face, no cage had ever heard the warble of this nightingale. ” When she had danced a little for very joy, she left the movement of the rein,
And went tothe bride-dresser and sat on her knee, who putacup to herlipsanda mirror in her hand. When that tender branch sat there, she filled with roses the dresser’s lap :
Indeed her jewels of gems and gold were a heavy burden to her, for her lovely face by itself was the first of all tiring-women :
Even as when the face of the moon is hidden be- hind a veilof clouds, such a pity it was for so fair a face as hers to be adorned with any ornaments : The loveliness of her face was by itself a most pleasant spring ; what can adornment add to the season of spring?
Her cheeks were as soft as the petal of a rose, and her lips like a rose-bud newly opened : Contrasted with her ambergris-fragrant mole, it seemed as if drops of blood could be seen on her brows: |
When they touchedthe ambergris-fragrant locks of that rose, the comb-eyelashes became like blades of spikenard.
With not less balmy sweat she bedewed her rosy face, saying ‘The rose needs no ornament but
37
drops of dew.’
When she was decked from head to foot with every kind of ornament, she came forth like a pearl fresh from the heart of a shell :
To her mother she said, witha glad smiling face, “O Thou, through whose kindness good fortune is ever renewed, delay not to order the marriage- feast,
** Diminish my grief (the Egypt of my heart) and increase your gladness; adorn the house-tops and walls, for Lo! Joseph is coming to the market.” When the lady-mother heard that glad news, she grew young for joy, like the zephyrs of dawn when the morning cometh.
She rose at once to make preparations ; (nought could be done ere she had made an end). | Whenassome days of the happy feast had worn, it seemed as if heaven had kissed the dust of earth;” For the feast was made fair like a bed of flowers ; it was a pleasant assembly far better than a cycle of Cathay or the picture galleries of China. When on both sides all had been made ready for the marriage, the astrologer determined the time of an auspicious hour.
By the stars they chose a lucky hour, and like a gem they set it beside the line of fortune.
Right glad and happy were the singers at the feast, and all set their eyes and hearts on the path of the bridegroom,
Whereby he should enter in, like the Candle of
38
good fortune, and the darkness of the night of the Moth be ended.
But all had forgotten comedian fate, and none knew what dramait should put forth from behind the blue curtain [of thesky] :
When the morning of that performance dawned, and the sun had raised his banner of spears above the fields,
That lover, awakened in an unfortunate hour (who in the very first of his love-days met with so strange a fate) came forth from a house of ill- fortune. |
It seemed as if it were Joseph, that was suc- coured and coming forth from his prison !
He had on his face a veil of roses, and seemed just like the sun hidden behind the moon.” With flowers he had made the saddle-cloth to be envied of the brightest flower-beds ; and the scent-sprinkled air put Khotan to shame.”
He had made his eyes a shrine and his heart a Brahman, patience was his bridle, desire his horse :”
With longing he went forward, yet ever looked back.
The world rejoiced in his gladness, and the sound of flutes and drums was a jewelled ring in the ear of the times.
The house-tops and walls were aglow with lamps and gay as a garden of flowers; and the gardens of flowers seemed like avenues by reason of the
39
plentiful lanterns :
A whole city gazed at them rejoicing heart and soul, and strove to make of the universe a nose- gay in the hand of bliss.
But he was without any sharein that gladness, and all the desires of his heart were to end in grief : Sorrow seemed to be heaped up in his heart, and he became as it were, the very substance of grief and pain:
It seemed that his heart foreboded some ill, but knew not what it might be ; for every wight was a happier one than he:
Riding on desire, yet he went slowly ; his feet moving on, his heart delayed.
At each step he had need to pierce his heart with a longing ; in each place he contrived to linger a little.
Absent-minded, and altogether a stranger to joy, he wasfaring along, yetit seemed as if he were go- ing to a house of mourning.
When they had travelled a half of the way, with great pomp and magnificence, they rested a while and then went forward again,
It befell that they came toa narrow way,a gloomy passage, most like the gateway of Chaos,
Of which the mouth was as dark as the mouth of a grave, and the path was as narrow as the edge of a shamshir :®
On each side of it towered ahigh palace, that cast a shadow even upon the arch of Khusrau.
40
But so many rivers of years had sprinkled their dews upon it, that there remained no soundness in its clay and bricks ;
It’s roof and walls hadso many cracks uponcracks that it seemed as though their builder had bound them together with a spider’s web.
The wind was one of its hireling supports, and a breath might have been excused for destroying it: Within and without it was wholly despoiled, and like a castle in the air it rested on nothing.
As soon as the trumpets were blown, its founda- tions trembled at the sound, like those of a grave. [in the day of Resurrection] ;
At the noise of the flutes and the reverberation and beating of drums, its walls fell down like a house of cards.
When that rotten and ancient building fell, there was buried under each of its bricks a hundred heads,
So that the clay of the bricks was mixed with the the flesh of the heads, and one could not tell which was brick and which was head.
Indeed, when that tomb fell down on the bride- groom’s head, it seemed as if heaven fell downon earth:
Cries resounded from the black-robed sky, and in every heart a hundred days of judgment were established:
Thesongs of joy were turned into keening, and the nails of weeping were broken ona heart of stone.
D 41
By thesorcery of the indigosky,the marriage feast was turned into a house of wailing:
The bride of heaven and the old hag-world changed the gay wedding dresses into the indigo robes of lamentation.
When this woful news had spread in the town, it was even as if it were set on fire:
The friends of the bridegroom were driven out of their senses,and all without exception were seated in blood and dust, that covered them to the waist. Like reckless drunkards of this incomprehensible universe, they broke to pieces all the bottles and cups. | Theit hearts had no thought but of shedding tor- rents of tears, and their eyes were hired for the work of sifting the dust: |
With their eyelashes they bored holesin thestones and bricks, and diligently sought for the death- sown seeds:
Yea, they applied themselves to digging amongst the ruins, and made of their eyes, Farhad, and their eyelashes, axes.
With their lashes they sifted the dust,and because of the death of the bridegroom they sprinkled that dust on their heads:
They plunged their lashes so deep in the dust, that they laid open the springs of the sea.
When that heart-wringing dust was opened, they found there that ruby without compare : When that gem came forth from the mire and
42
clay, jewels fell from each eye and rubies from every heart.
They laid the corpse in an elephant litter, and bore it upon their heads:
All grimy they bore the body away in haste to cleanse it in fire.
As the custom is of the fire-worshipping folk, they desired to make of the fire a pleasant field and a garden of fruits for him.
The very same crowd and eager preparation, the same marriage festivity and musicians, who sang on either hand and rejoiced and drank to the health of the cup-bearers,
The same lookers-on who were happy in mind and soul, with the self-same bugles and drums and singers,
Marched forward again, and with them there went a whole world of folk ;
The fire-bride became his beloved, the temple of fire his marriage chamber.
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IV. THE MAIDEN DESIRES TO BE BURNED WITH HER BELOVED.
When the maiden dreamed that most tangled dream, in despair, like a rose she gave to the wind her petal-cheeks: *
Swooning, sherose from the house of delight, like one with thorns in her feet and fire in the palm of her hand:
With her own handsshetore at her eyes and eye- lashes, like one who plucks the thorns from the soles of her feet:
So much the indigo clouds did rain on the Rose, that the henna upon her nails was darkened: Rivers of blood she madeto flow on her breast,blood was the rust with which her mirror was dimmed, and with blood the surma was washed from her eyes: From her lips sprang poison in place of a smile; for tearing of her dress was her body more naked than the petal of a rose, and the bosom of her gar- ment was more torn than the hem of a rose-leaf. Feet and head bare, witless, and like to a flame of fire, she cried ‘‘ Laila has become the martyr of Majnin!”
Like a mother-son bastard who recks not of hon- our, she hated herself, and fought with her own. name;
Her heart forgetting the sign of duality, she was crying “O would... !” and “I am the Truth.” For the intoxication of longing desire she was
44
ready to die, and become the Moth of the Candle of that elephant-litter:
Like one having lost the way on a dark stormy night she went on to embrace the fire:
Like a flame she might not stay still, for desire to be burned with her friend in the fire.
Though she was going to worship the cinders, it seemed as if she was going in gladness to pluck some roses :
Asshe went on her way tothe fire, it was even asif she had the wings of the Moth beneath her arms. -As she went forward to lay her breast in the fire, she groaned like a burning tree.
A very world was heart-broken with sighs for her sorrow, asking ‘who can find out the love- speaker?’ *
All the doctors, philosophers,old men and young, vainly essayed to comfort her,
To dissuade her impatient heart from its unfor- tunate wish, and to damp the ardor of her long- ing for the fire.
Those of the Brahman faith, and the worshippers of Idols, on every side sang to her the melodies of a ‘Hundred promises’, and essayed to console her with a hundred hopes and fears;
But she was so drunken with desire to make acquaintance with the fire, that she did not even understand their language,and gavea denial even to plain facts,
Saying : “If even the Idol should try to dissuade
45
me, no more shall the Idol be worshipped by me, “‘T shall not believe in it any more; and if Jesus should hold me back, I shall not refrain my tongue from slandering Mary his Mother.
“If the Brahman set his eyes to hinder me, he is no more a Brahman, but a chief of the doctors: ” ‘“<If my mother should burn her lips in advising me, may her heart be scorched with the fire of ‘O Lord!’
‘And if I might not have her death as my own, may the taste of her milk be unlawful to me!
“ Noone has any right over the life of another; is not that my own affair?
“Tt does not belong to anyone else ; why chanie I not be ashamed of such a life, ‘Rat my beloved should be burnt and [ still living ?
‘“‘ My desire of the fire is to sacrifice my soul and to wreck the whole market of life,
“If for me, the heart-thirsty-lip, who am weary _ Ei
of life, there be no fire, there shall yet be poison or sword.”
Since by advising that heart of fire, she grew even more hotly enflamed with blood, and by reason of her passion her desire was increased,
They were greatly cast down and took counsel to be silent ;
In despair they made smoke of their breath, and a hundred ways of remedy were closed to them.
46
ae aes Yee eter Pe aT oe ia ee lS
a as s a ij
’
2
ae! SG
V. AKBAR PADSHAH SUMMONS THE MAIDEN TO COMFORT HER.
Since the comforters were now weary of every kind of persuasion, they closed their mouths and sat lamenting. .
When this story became spread abroad, the Shah of the men of skill was made aware of it, Howgriefhad placed mother-of-pearl in the blood of a heart-enthralling maiden,whose like had not been seen in that age,
With lips of the nectar of youth,who drank of the milk of love,while yet the pearl of her fortune re- mained, like the dew of April, in Nature’s womb; How, likea flower, she was nursed in thecradle of virtue, and no zephyr-glances had ever breathed on her face,
How she had not even washed from her lips the milk of childhood, and not one of her hundred
flowers had opened,
When the wind of misfortune and dark days of sor- row waxed bitter to her,and gave her not even one instant’s fulfilment ;
How because of her heart’s desire, her broken spirit was scorched by fire, and fire was herroasted meat,
How she had chosen only one thing in this world or the next, and that to be burned,
How she longed to go to the fire, and how like a child the firework of Love delighted her, and she
ay
had set out to lay hold of Love,
Howshe did not submit herself to any advice, and like the fire itself she stood not in awe of any, How the breath of life was become dangerous to her spirit, and no remedy could she find, but to to fare to the fire.
When the Shah heard all this sorrowful tale: he
wept for her lot, and lifting his head, he said:
“OQ Love,what isall this heart-heresy? What dost thou require of her?
““O enemy, have mercy, gue be generous to her! What hast thou to do with that one whose own savour is that of a fire of basil ?
“Ttis brave men whoare wont to fight the brave, what but shame can come of your fight with a woman?
“Tf thou art brave indeed, then fight with Nau’, and mix the froth of his blood with ashes.” *
By the ardor of that tender-heart the kindly Shah was enflamed ;
Moved with greatcompassion, His Majesty would examine the case for himself.
He sent for that Idol,whom they named ‘the In- fidel’, and with Kawthar he sought to comfort that thirsty lip. *
By the king’s command, that fire-enfolded-one entered, who, like a restless tortured flame was wvvancheds in aanoles
Like a rose she went to the blazing throne, her heart in one hand, a flame in the other.
48
ge Siete
That fiery statue, when it bent down before the king, vouchsafed the gift of the garden of Para- dise to the place of prostration.
The most gracious king set her upon the feet of his throne, and poured over her head the jewels of speech.
With intent to comfort, he stroked her head, so that under it was the throne,and aboveit,the hand of the king as a crown:
In kindness and mercy he comforted her with sweet bounties of pleasantry and play:
He adopted her as his child, and appointed her to to a house of retirement.
He granted her power to reign in each province, and gave her leave to rule in the kingdom of Hind, He gave her a thousand Arab horse and an hun- dred elephants, and goods, asofmoney, and miles upon miles of gold brocade,
A thousand Chinese girls, everyone fair to behold and desiring acquaintance, and a thousand Ethi- opian slaves, unattached to self and devoted in service,
Thousands of boxes filled with rubies and gems, and thousands of skins of musk of Ophir ;
Of every good thing from the moon to the fish, saving only the kingship, he made her a gift. But that woman of manly courage, that sugar-lip- parrotand fain-would-be Moth,might not be con- soled with these goods, and she had noother wish or desire but to sacrifice and surrender her life ;
49
Nothing was acceptable to her lips but the pearl of fire, and except for the word of ‘burning’ she uttered no sound.
5°
VI. THE KING ALLOWS THE MAI- DEN’S DESIRE.
When the Padshah found that he had no powerto comfort her, he forthwith loosed the rein of her fiery mood,
And granted her desire, yet not with his heart’s consent: then that bird of sacrifice leapt with joy. While the cup of his lips was not yet emptied of the letter of permission, her eagerness had already set out for the devouring flame ;
Her lips were engaged in converse with the Shah, while her eyes were aglow to go to the temple of fire.
Atlast the Sun of knowledge and justice found that her only remedy lay in the fire:
Then he commanded hisson,by youthand fortune blest, saying : “‘O thou who art the very eye and light of my crown and throne,
“Take now this blazing flame to the fiery furnace, cast fire in the heart of fire;
“Tf she yield to you, help her; andif she will burn herself in the fire, be over her head, | “Gather together aloe and sandal wood in heaps, and after the manner meet for virgins, burn her with fire.”
Then theflower of good fortune,the spring of pros- perity, the envy of men andjinns, Prince Daniyal, The light of the royal dynasty, and the glory of the brow of hope, by command of the king and the
51
court, fared along with that eager one—
Only to witness that sight had the world bestow- ed its gift of life on every hand!
The Prince at each look gave her a message of kindness, and at every step he made promise to fulfil one of her wishes ;
But her heart knew nought of this world or the next, the longing for fire unceasingly wrought in her soul.
For all the histories and parables that the Prince related, her heart might never be tamed, nor her passion chilled of the heat that possessed her. She was weary of hearing the sound of those tales, so that her courage cried out in her:
““O, thou hast made me a byword, and by these tales thou hast changed the day of my joy into the night of despair !
““Because of my patience, my well-beloved will be angry and grieved, and the fire will die because of waiting so long for me!
“‘ My heart is drunken with the “O would. . !’ of Love, and every hair-root of mineis indeed the fire-temple of Love,
“Tam that glowing ash that is born of the plumes and the wings of the Moth ;
“Though one should stay me by a hundred de- vices from burning, yet my love shall return to its source again.
“For those who are of the fellowship of Love, it is very easy indeed to goalive into the fire because
§2
of love.”
When at last the Prince came short of dissuading her, hesprinkled upon his burning heart therose- water of despair,
And gave command to kindle the fire to burn both those lovers together.
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VII. ENTERING OF THE MAIDEN INTO THE FIRE.
The most obedient servants of the Prince, whose life was the price of their faithfulness,
As soon as they heard the Prince’s song of per- mission, ran like fire to the wood.
So much sandal and aloe wood they heaped to- gether, that the world was filled with its amber- gris-fragrant smoke:
In less than the twinkling of an eye a fiery home was prepared for them twain:
They laid the dead man thereon, as frankincense in the censer.
As soon as the smoke of it reached the maiden’s nose, her soul was poured out likeabreath on the ground.
Like the seed of wild mustard she danced for joy, and with glowing thanksand praise tothe Prince she adorned her tongue, saying: ”
‘*O protector of atoms, and O Jupiter, most fur- tunate of luminaries,
‘My heart and soul are fed by thy munificence, both I and the fire are the love-slaves of thee ! “How can I make a return for thy bounty? Even by burning, Ah ! even thus I cannot escape shamefastness therefor ! | ‘Make thy mind therefor the prophet of my heart, O ! be gracious to forgive me and pardon the fire.”
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Next to the Prince, she took leave of all, one by one, whereby she made the heart and eyes of the world a mine of salt.
As she went on, she burned a world of folk with the fire of the sorrow of her heart,
So that all lips became red with pan, and the eyes of all men shed tears of blood and surma. Then like a ruby, she entered the flames, and gaz- ed on the fire with so ravisheda look that the fire was afraid of touching her ;
Soimpatient she was because ofher heart’s desire, that the heart of the fire became as cold as icy water!
When the blood-spilling fire-flood surged on again and arose in resurrection,
She entered its midst likea strong wind that swept the dust from her face and the smoke from the flames.
The fire to her feet was as roses to her hand, and the flames dyed her feet with the henna ofher own blood ; .
The fire enfolded her with a hundred sighs, in such wisethat her body seemed likea taper and the fire like the lantern-screen:
With her heart’s blood she cast oil onthe fire, and right soon the rue-seed of tears abandoned her. She asked of the fire the ‘ promise-time’ of her well-beloved, and eagerly looked for and expect- ed the effulgence of his meeting ;
The fire made answer through her heart’s own se-
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cret, that zt was her guide to Kawthar.
As soon as she learnt the way, she went forward to him at once, and cast away her veilto kiss him, She laid his broken head on her knees and kissed his lips and put her face to his face ;
With herlashesshesweptthe flames from his hair, and with her blood she washed the smoke of the fire from his face.
She embraced him more nearly than her soul, and when she had found her well-beloved, she gave up her life to him.
With Nau’ were the bodies twain mixed to- gether, so that her soul was his shroud. *
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ae ae
v age ti. 2S = cd q StS = = 7 Seine iin ine Aaa Lan is Be a
VII. PRINCE DANIYAL APPROACHES THE FIRE AND WOULD URGE THE MAIDEN TO COME OUT FROM IT.
When the Prince had read the inscription of her condition,rose-water poured fromthe flower-root _ of his eye-lashes,
Like a cloud of mercy he wept because of her, crying : “O shame upon us, to pretend that we are indeed alive !”’
And he waxed so drunken with sorrow and with the wine of weeping, that, like Siyawash he fear- lessly urged his ashen horse to the fire, saying : ” “O lion-hearted, O truly-beloved ! thisindeed is the only ascension of lover and beloved, “This is the only condition of Union, yea, the perfection of Love is ‘I fear not’:
“It is not in the power of the weak to be so brave as thou art, thou hast achieved the height of heroism,
‘““] wish for thee all that thou canst desire from the Paradise of Love, I pray that the fire itself may be as the clouds of mercy to thee.
‘The faces of men are all bowed on the earth in wonder, a thousand plaudits are said for thee; “Be comforted, for thou hast accomplished thy work, and indeed thou hast more donethan those of whom you have told.
“‘ Nowacity is ruined and grieves for your sake, it is right for you to come out of the fire,
7 57
‘Do not pour more than this river Jayhun from thy eyes, if thou wouldst that the world have peace, *
“Put aside thy passionate mood and come forth from the fire like pure gold from the furnace.” As soon as she heard the Prince’s voice, her un- derstanding arose to withstand him,
And washing her lips with blood, she spake to him with burning words:
“*O ! perfect assayer of lovers and beloved, do not annoy me, do not annoy me, do not annoy! “After a lifetime I have attained fulfilment. What an attainment! less enduring than a thought:
“The happiest breath of my attainment is its last hour, no other moment of peace in all my life ! *‘For ages did I desire to behold him, and when I had seen his face, I found no peace in Disunion; “ Now that I have found him alone, without the annoyance of strangers, O what disgrace, O what shame to desert him !
“Tilldeath Ishall not remove my hands from the hem of his garment,
“‘My heart is of adamantine firmness, even if I be weak :
“If I follow not the way of faithfulness to the end, how may I answer Love at the day of judgment? “It is far better that desire should suffer shame, than my love, and better by far that Love should live and I die.”
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Her lips were occupied with such speech with the Prince, but the torrent of flame opposed her and burned up her words twixt the tongue and ear : Her heart was engaged inselling its secrets, while the fire applied to her lips the seal of silence. The fiery tongue in her mouth grew weary, which made an end of her lisping.
The fire embraced her close as she would, like a drunken man who grips his cup:
Sweetly itcrumpled her body together and crush- ed her, as the wine-bibber foldsthe roasted meat. When her body was fire-engulfed, it turned to flame, and the flame to smoke :
By grace ofthe fire, her visage grew fresh asa rose- bud, and every spikenard twig wasatree of shelter to her.
A thousand waves of fire found their way to her veins and sinews, while the cream of her heart was wholly mixed with her friend’s :
Her body was like a jar of wine in full effervesc- ence and agitation, while her tongue became quiet as the vessel’s rim :
She plunged in the midst of the flames like a sala- mander, and all her limbs were gleeds of fire. The fire burned up every atom of her body, that the smoke did not even pass from her heart to the tongue ;
Withal was her tongue the parrot of the praise of Love, and her heart the nightingale of the rose. While thus she burned there poured upon her
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from every side the arrows of onlooker’s glances: Twice had she lifted her head from the breast of the moon-fair bridegroom, like an orb froma fiery shoulder,
A thousand flames were mixed with her hair, like the sun of fiery face on the judgment day:
She looked on every hand withasmiling face, her glance was more burning than the lightning of a sigh,
She lifted her head from the depths of the fire, and plunged her life in its dews.
Because of the heat her body was turned to ashes, and the flames died down, and the ashes of her were as fragrant as musk :
Indeed, far purer than the essence of Kafur was a handful of ashes from that most light corse :® Like the soul, she became single from the cares of the body, and with fire she was madeas pure as the body of Being.”
She was made free and pure from the body of clay and water ; she mingled her flames with thesatin of repentance:
From every blemish she made herself wholly free, yea, the fire washed white the dress of her beauti- ful life.
Freed was she from this vain existence, and grac- iously was she accepted in the eternal life: Dying once, she was saved froma hundred heart- sorrows, and nosooner was she freed from herself than she was joined with her friend.
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en ae ——————$————
Ah, let those whose hearts are ablaze with the fire of love learn manliness from this pure may ! The deliberate judgment of heroes is this, that a perfect woman is better far than halfa man. — When the fiery flood of affection scorched the heart ofa woman, she freely burned herself for the sake of one already dead.
Shame, Oh! Nau’, that thine is the name of ‘man’; noughtbut shame befits such little mind-
- edness !
Since thou canst not set thy foot on thy life be- cause of thy longing for life, thou shalt everlast- ingly be dead !*
Alas ! forthy boast of loving and being a man, let the profession of the virtue of manliness be for- bidden thee.
O God, teach me the way of Love, and enflame my heart with this maiden’s fire.
Grant to my love the goal of fire-fighting, that haply I may be relieved of the shame of being a man.
Strike a ray of lightning from my field, and by that flash set on fire my threshing-floor.
Apply a spark to my idle thoughts, and with that flame pour some dew on my dust.
Grant mea rose from the flower-garden of Khalil, and make the fire my guide upon this way.
FINIS.
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NOTES.
1. Mother of books, a name of the Quran.
2. Jam-i-Jamshid, the cup or mirror of Jamshid, Solomon or Alexander, signifying the whole world.
3. St. Matthew, v. 11: “‘ Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you.”
4. The tavern of Tur, etc., i.e. the mountain of Moses, here signifying a state beyond good and evil, unconditioned, Nirvana.
5. As Christ issaid to have borneand repented of the sins of the whole world, so it must appear to all who realise themselves as the Christ or Self, that the sins of the world are theirs’. Thus, if Love makes pure our hearts, we take on sin; thus also, the repentance of each seeming individual is the conversion of the whole world, for each ofus is the entire and undivided Brahman.
6. Theworld of poverty, i.e. the fellowship of the poor in spirit.
7. Green grass: friends visiting friends take with them flowers, or even a blade of grass, saying “God make green thy lap.’
8. The Friend, i.e. God. In these verses, the Prince’s messenger is compared to the voice of God.
g. Inspiration seems external, but is truly the © speech of the Self with the self.
10. Majnin, Farhad, the heroes of well known
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Persian love-stories, with a mystic interpretation. 11. Thou Brahman-Zada of Love,i.e. thou ofthe Brahman or highest caste of lovers.
12. The Hindus are spoken of as fire-worship- ers because of the fire of love, and because of the funeral pyre; not in a strictly descriptive sense (the true Zoroastrian fire-worshipper would not dream of defiling fire by burning a corpse). The whole verse is an invitation to consider the sacri- fice of Love, and the worship of the Beloved.
13. Aytk, a bright red star that follows the Pleiades. The sense is, that the zenith or limit of wonder is reached.
14. Jibrail, the power of God, the angel Gabriel. 15. The meaning is not clear.
16. Tooextravagant hyperbole,merely intended to describe Akbar’s wisdom and holiness.
17. Referring tothestory of Yisifand Zuleikha. 18. As Love is Beauty, and Beauty creates Love, so the lovers were one. Shaikh San’an, a great Darwesh, famous for self-mastery.
19. AsChandi Dassings of Radha-Krishna: “ Of such love no one ever heard: their hearts are bound to each other by their very nature. They are together, yet weep for fear of parting. If one is hidden from the other for half-a-second, they feel the pangs of death.”
20. Using the bricks of the house of life to build their graves.
21. Suminat, i.e. the great temple of Somnath in
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Gujerat, destroyed by Sultan Mahmiad Ghazni in A.D. 1024. Mahmalat, perhaps a mosque in Arabia.
22. Ka’ba of Islam, i.e. Mecca.
23. Theebon sky, i.e. the dark ways of Provi- dence.
24. Meaning she had lived behind the purdah, and not been seen abroad.
25. The Hindu wedding festivities last some days before the actual ceremony is performed. 26. Hindu bridegrooms wear a veil of flowers, whereby the brightness of the face is eclipsed. 27. Khotan, famous for musk.
28. I.e. he worshipped an idol, his Beloved. 29. Shamshir,a keen Persian sword.
30. I.e. she tore her face, as the wind tears the petals of a rose.
31. Love-speaker, lit, parwana-taus, ‘Moth- peacock’, The meaning is, “Who can dissuade her from burning herself ? ”
32. I.e. not divine, but merely learned.
33. Nau’l, play on words, meaning ‘one such as thyself,’ ‘a man.’
34. Kawthar, a river of Paradise.
35. Seed of wild mustard, (¢spand) which jumps when roasted. It isburnt at marriagesand births to drive away evil spirits.
36. With Nau’i, play on words, meaning, ‘in such wise’.
37. Siyawash, father of Cyrus of Persia ; afear- 64
Ss
ea,
=
less king.
38. Jayhun, the river Oxus.
39. I.e. purer than camphor.
40. Pureas the body of Being, i.e. freed from all conditions, mrguna.
41. St. Matthew, x. 39; “He that findeth his life shall loseit, and he that loseth his life for My (Love’s) sake shall find it.”
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Four hundred and five copies printed at the Old Bourne Press, 15 Holborn. Sold by Ananda K.Coomaraswamy : and by Messrs. Luzac, 46 Great Russell Street, London. Finished May,
1912. Thisis No. '
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