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5
3468-3517

  • He (the slave) answered, “It belongs to so-and-so, the most honourable Amír.” Said he, “Is the seeker's work like this?
  • (To be) a seeker of God, and then (indulge in) pleasure and drinking! (To drink) the Devil's wine, and then be (even) semi-intelligent!”
  • (Even) without wine your intelligence is so shabby (that other) intelligences must be tied (added) to your (present) intelligence. 3470
  • Consider, (then), what your intelligence will be at the time when you are intoxicated, O you who like a bird have fallen a prey to the snare of intoxication.
  • Story of Ziyá-yi Dalq, who was very tall, while his brother, the Shaykh of Islam Táj of Balkh, was exceedingly short; and this Shaykh of Islam was ashamed of his brother Ziyá. (One day) Ziyá came to (hear) his brother's lecture, at which all the leading men of Balkh were present. Ziyá made a bow (to his brother) and passed on. The Shaykh of Islam half rose (from his seat) in a negligent manner, (whereupon) he (Ziyá) said, “Yes, you are very tall: take a bit off (your height)!”
  • Ziyá-yi Dalq was a man of goodly inspiration: he was the brother of Táj, the Shaykh of Islam.
  • Táj, the Shaykhu ’l-Islám of the imperial city of Balkh, was short of stature and small as a chick.
  • Though he was learned and eminent and accomplished, (his brother) this Ziyá was superior in wit.
  • He (Táj) was very short, while Ziyá was tall beyond measure: the Shaykh of Islam had a hundred arrogances and haughty airs. 3475
  • He felt ashamed of this brother and disgraced (by him); yet Ziyá was a preacher in the way of salvation.
  • On the day of congregation Ziyá came in: the hall was filled with cadis and men distinguished (for piety).
  • In his complete arrogance the Shaykh of Islam (only) half rose (from his seat), in such a (careless) fashion, to (salute) his brother.
  • He (Ziyá) said to him, “Thou art very tall: take a little off thy cypress-like stature in order to gain the (Divine) reward.”
  • (The ascetic said), “How, then, have you the intelligence, how have you the (necessary) understanding to drink wine, O enemy of knowledge? 3480
  • (If) your face is very beautiful, put some indigo on it (as an ornament); (but) indigo on the face of an Abyssinian (negro) would be a laughing-stock.
  • When did any (spiritual) light enter into you, O misguided man, that you should become a seeker of unconsciousness and darkness?
  • ’Tis the (approved) rule to seek the shadow during the day; (but) you seek the shadow on a cloudy night.
  • If it (wine) is lawful as sustenance for the common folk, (yet) it is unlawful to those who seek the Beloved.
  • The wine for the lovers (of God) is their heart's blood: their eyes are (fixed) upon the Way and upon the Destination. 3485
  • In this Way across the terrible wilderness the guide, Reason, suffers a hundred eclipses.
  • (If) you throw dust in the eyes of the guides, you will cause the caravan to perish and lose the way.
  • In sooth, barley bread is unlawful and injurious to the carnal soul: set (only) bread made of bran before it.
  • Keep in abject submission the enemy on the Way to God: do not place a pulpit for the robber, (but) keep him on the gibbet.
  • Deem the amputation of the robber's hand desirable: if you are unable to cut his hand off, bind it. 3490
  • Unless you bind his hand, he will bind yours; unless you break his leg, he will break yours.
  • You give the enemy wine and sugar-cane—for what reason? Bid him laugh venomously and eat earth.”
  • In his indignation he (the ascetic) hurled a stone at the jug and broke it: he (the slave) let the jug fall and sprang away from the ascetic.
  • He went to the Amír, who said to him, “Where is the wine?” He (the slave) related in his presence all that had happened, point by point.
  • How the enraged Amír set out to punish the ascetic.
  • The Amír became like fire and jumped straight up. “Show me,” he cried, “where the ascetic's house is, 3495
  • That I may pound his head with this heavy club—his ignorant whoreson head.
  • What should he know about enjoining (others) to do right? He is currishly seeking notoriety and fame,
  • In order that by means of this hypocrisy he may make a position for himself and somehow make himself conspicuous;
  • For in truth he has no talent save this alone, that he plays the hypocrite to all and sundry.
  • If he is mad and bent on mischief, the cure for a madman is an ox-hide whip, [If he is mad and bent on mischief, the cure for a madman is a whip (made from) an ox’s penis,] 3500
  • So that the devil may go forth from his head: how should an ass go (forward) without the ass-drivers' blows?”
  • The Amír dashed out, with a mace in his hand: at midnight he came, half intoxicated, to the ascetic.
  • In his rage he wished to kill the ascetic, (but) the ascetic hid beneath (some) wool.
  • The ascetic, hidden under the wool belonging to certain rope-makers, heard that (threat) from the Amír.
  • He said (to himself), “(Only) the mirror that has made its face hard can tell a man to his face that he is ugly. 3505
  • It needs a steel face, like a mirror, to say to thee, ‘Behold thy ugly face.’”
  • Story of Dalqak's checkmating the Sayyid, the Sháh of Tirmid.
  • The Sháh was playing chess with Dalqak: he (Dalqak) checkmated him: immediately the Sháh's anger burst out.
  • He (Dalqak) cried, “Checkmate, checkmate!” and the haughty monarch threw the chessmen, one by one, at his head,
  • Saying, “Take (it)! Here is ‘checkmate’ for you, O scoundrel.” Dalqak restrained himself and (only) said, “Mercy!”
  • The Prince commanded him to play a second game: he (Dalqak) was trembling like a naked man in bitter cold. 3510
  • He played the second game, and the Sháh was defeated: (when) the time and moment for saying “checkmate, checkmate” arrived,
  • Dalqak jumped up and ran into a corner and in his fear hastily flung six rugs over himself.
  • (There) he lay hidden beneath (several) cushions and six rugs, that he might escape from the Sháh's blows.
  • The Sháh exclaimed, “Hi, hi! what have you done? What is this?” He replied, “Checkmate, checkmate, checkmate, checkmate, O excellent Sháh!
  • How can one tell the truth to thee except under cover, O wrathful man who art wrapped in fire, 3515
  • O thou who art defeated (by me), while I, defeated by thy Majesty's blows, am crying ‘checkmate, checkmate’ under thy house-furnishings?”
  • When the (whole) quarter became filled with the furious shouts of the Amír and his kicking the (ascetic's) door and holding and seizing,