Volume 2

A literary history of Persia / by Edward G. Browne.

  • Edward Granville Browne
Date:
1928
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A literary history of Persia / by Edward G. Browne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    he writes a draft for his salary on Isfahan, and orders his allowances to be paid out of the treasury.’ Said the King : ‘ Thou must do it, then, for none else has sufficient boldness. And call this poet after my title.’ Now the King’s title was MuHzzu d-Dunyd wa’d-Din,1 so Amir ‘All called me Mu‘izzi. * Amir Mu'izzi,’ said the King [cor¬ recting him]. And this noble lord was so zealous for me that next day, by the time of the first prayer, I had received a thousand dinars as a gift, twelve hundred more as allowances, and an order for a thousand maunds of corn. And when the month of Ramadan was passed, he summoned me to a private audience, and caused me to become the King’s boon-companion. So my fortune began to improve, and thenceforth he made enduring provision for me, and to-day whatever I have I possess by the favour of that Prince. May God, blessed and exalted is He, rejoice his dust with the lights of His Mercy, by His Favour and His Grace !” This anecdote further illustrates the importance attached in earlier days to the faculty of improvisation in poets, and several other striking instances are given in this same hi^y^sTeemed book, the Ghahar Maqala. Thus (pp. 56-58) m eari* times. wjien gu|^n Mahmud of Ghazna had cut off the locks of his favourite Ayaz in a moment of drunken excite¬ ment, and, partly from remorse, partly from the after-effects of his drinking-bout, was next day in so evil a temper that none dared approach him, the Poet-laureate ‘Unsurl restored him to good humour by this quatrain :— Gar ‘ayb-i-sar-i-zulf-i-but az kdstan-asiy Chi ja-yi bi-gham nishastan u khastan-astt Jd-yi tarab u nishat u may khwastan-ast, K’drastan-i-sarv zi pirastan-ast. “Though shame it be a fair one’s curls to shear, Why rise in wrath or sit in sorrow here ? Rather rejoice, make merry, call for wine; When clipped the cypress* doth most trim appear.” 1 “The Glorifier of the World and the Faith.” Every poet in Persia assumes a “ pen-name,” nom de guerre, or takhalius, which is most often derived from his patron’s title, e.g., Sa‘di, Anwari, Nidhami, &c. a The comparison of a tall and graceful beauty to a cypress is very common in Persian and Turkish poetry.