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4
1216-1265

  • He (the vizier) replied, “I will squeeze him in torment, that he may be made wretched and worn out by waiting;
  • Then, if I give him earth from the road, he will snatch it as (though it were) rose-leaves from the garden.
  • Leave this to me, for I am expert in this, even if the claimant be fiery (hot and fierce).
  • Though he (be able to) fly from the Pleiades to the earth, he will become meek when he sees me.”
  • The king said to him, “Go: ’tis for thee to command; but make him happy, for he is my eulogist.” 1220
  • He (the vizier) said, “Leave him and two hundred (other) lickers-up of hope to me, and write this (down) against me.”
  • Then the minister threw him into (the pains of) expectation: winter and December passed and spring came.
  • In expectation of it (the reward) the poet grew old; then he was crushed by this anxiety and making shift to provide (the means of livelihood),
  • And said (to the vizier), “If there is no gold (for me), please give me abuse, so that my soul may be delivered (from expectation) (and that) I may be thy (devoted) slave.
  • Expectation has killed me: at least bid me go, that this wretched soul may be delivered from bondage.” 1225
  • After that, he (the vizier) gave him the fortieth part of that (gift): the poet remained in heavy thought,
  • (Thinking), “That (former gift) was so promptly paid and was so much: this one that blossomed late was (only) a handful of thorns.”
  • Then they (the courtiers) said to him, “That generous vizier has departed from this life: may God reward thee!
  • For those gifts were always multiplied (increased in amount) by him: there was no fault to be found with the donations (then);
  • (But) now, he is gone and has taken beneficence away (with him): he is not dead, (but) beneficence is dead (in this world), yea, verily. 1230
  • The generous and upright minister is gone from us; the minister who is a flayer of the poor has arrived.
  • Go, take this (money) and flee from here by night, lest this minister pick a quarrel with thee.
  • We have obtained this gift from him by a hundred devices, O thou who art ignorant of our exertions.”
  • He turned his face to them and said, “O kindly men, tell (me), whence came this myrmidon (ruffian)?
  • What is the name of this vizier who tears off the clothes (of the poor)?” The company (of courtiers) said to him, “His name too is Hasan.” 1235
  • He (the poet) cried, “O Lord, how are the names of that one and this one the same? Alas, O Lord of the Judgement!
  • That Hasan by name (was such) that by a single pen of his a hundred viziers and ministers are disposed to liberality.
  • This Hasan (is such) that from the ugly beard of this Hasan thou canst weave, O (dear) soul, a hundred ropes.”
  • When a king listens to such a minister, he (the minister) disgraces the king and his kingdom unto everlasting.
  • The resemblance of the bad judgement of this base vizier in corrupting the king's generosity to (that of) the vizier of Pharaoh, namely, Hámán, in corrupting the readiness of Pharaoh to receive (the true Faith).
  • How many a time did Pharaoh soften and become submissive when he was hearing that Word from Moses!— 1240
  • That Word (which was such) that from the sweetness of that incomparable Word the rock would have yielded milk.
  • Whenever he took counsel with Hámán, who was his vizier and whose nature it was to hate,
  • Then he (Hámán) would say, “Until now thou hast been the Khedive: wilt thou become, through deception, the slave to a wearer of rags?”
  • Those words would come like a stone shot by a mangonel (ballista) and strike upon his glass house.
  • All that the Kalím of sweet address built up in a hundred days he (Hámán) would destroy in one moment. 1245
  • Thy intellect is the vizier and is overcome by sensuality: in (the realm of) thy being it is a brigand (that attacks thee) on the Way to God.
  • (If) a godly monitor give thee good advice, it will artfully put those words (of his) aside,
  • Saying, “These (words) are not well-founded: take heed, don't be carried away (by them); they are not (worth) so much: come to thyself (be sensible), don't be crazed.”
  • Alas for the king whose vizier is this (carnal intellect): the place (abode) of them both is vengeful Hell.
  • Happy is the king whose helper in affairs is a vizier like Ásaf. 1250
  • When the just king is associated with him, his (the king's) name is light upon light.
  • A king like Solomon and a vizier like Ásaf are light upon light and ambergris upon ‘abír.
  • (When) the king (is like) Pharaoh and his vizier like Hámán, ill-fortune is inevitable for both.
  • Then it is (a case of) darkness, one part over another: neither intellect nor fortune shall be their friend on the Day of Judgement.
  • I have not seen aught but misery in the vile: if thou hast seen (aught else), convey (to them) the salaam (of felicitation) from me. 1255
  • The king is as the spirit, and the vizier as the intellect: the corrupt intellect brings the spirit into movement (towards corruption).
  • When the angelical intellect became a Hárút, it became the teacher in magic to two hundred devils.
  • Do not take the particular (individual) intellect as thy vizier: make the Universal Intellect thy vizier, O king.
  • Do not make sensuality thy vizier, else thy pure spirit will cease from prayer,
  • For this sensuality is full of greed and sees (only) the immediate present, (whereas) the Intellect takes thought for the Day of Judgement. 1260
  • The two eyes of the Intellect are (fixed) on the end of things: it endures the pain of the thorn for the sake of that Rose
  • Which does not fade and drop in autumn—far from it be the wind (breath) of every nose that cannot smell!
  • How the Demon sat on the place (throne) of Solomon, on whom be peace, and imitated his actions; and concerning the manifest difference between the two Solomons, and how the Demon called himself Solomon son of David.
  • Even if thou hast intellect, associate and consult with another intellect, O father.
  • With two intellects thou wilt be delivered from many afflictions: thou wilt plant thy foot on the summit of the heavens.
  • If the Demon called himself Solomon and won the kingdom and made the empire subject (to him), 1265