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VII
A person who had not seen his friend for a length of time, said to him: “Where were you? for I have been very solicitous about you.” He replied, “It is better to be sought after than loathed.” Thou hast come late, O intoxicating idol! I shall not in a hurry quit my hold on thy skirt: — that mistress whom they see but seldom is at last more desired than she is whom they are cloyed with seeing.
The charmer that can bring companions along with her has come to quarrel; for she cannot be void of jealousy and discontent: — Whenever thou contest to visit me attended with comrades or rivals, though thou comest in peace yet thy object is hostile: — for one single moment that my mistress associated with a rival, it went well-nigh to slay me with jealousy. Smiling, she replied: “O Sa’di! I am the torch of the assembly; what is it to me if the moth consume itself?”
VIII
In former times, I recollect, a friend and I were associating together like two kernels within one almond shell. I happened unexpectedly to go on a journey. After some time, when I was returned, he began to chide me, saying: “During this long interval you never sent me a messenger.” I replied: “It vexed me to think that the eyes of a courier should be enlightened by your countenance, whilst I was debarred that happiness: — Tell my old charmer not to impose a vow upon me with her tongue; for I would not repent, were she to attempt it with a sword. Envy stings me to the quick, lest another should be satiated with beholding thee, till I recollect myself, and say: Nobody can have a satiety of that!”
IX
I saw a learned gentleman the captive of attachment for a certain person, and the victim of his reproach; and he would suffer much violence, and bear it with great patience. On one occasion I said, by way of admonition: “I know that in your attachment for this person you have no bad object, and that this friendship rests not on any criminal design; yet, under this interpretation, it accords not with the dignity of the learned to expose yourself to calumny, and put up with the rudeness of the rabble.” He replied: “O my friend, withdraw the hand of reproach from the skirt of my fatality, for I have frequently reflected on this advice which you offer me, and find it easier to suffer contumely on his account than to forego his company; and philosophers have said: ‘It is less arduous to persist in the labor of courting than to restrain the eye from contemplating a beloved object’: — Whoever devotes his heart to a soul deluder puts his beard or reputation into the hands of another. That person, without whom thou canst not exist, if he do thee a violence, thou must bear with it. The antelope, that is led by a string, cannot bound from this side to that. One day I asked a compact of my mistress; how often have I since that day craved her forgiveness! A lover exacts not terms of his charmer; I relinquished my heart to whatever she desired me, whether to call me up to her with kindness, or drive me from her with harshness she knows best, or it is her pleasure.”
X
In my early youth such an event (as you know) will come to pass. I held a mystery and intercourse with a young person, because he had a pipe of exquisite melody, and a form silver bright as the full moon:— “He is sipping the fountain of immortality, who may taste the down of his cheek; and he is eating a sweetmeat, who can fancy the sugar of his lips.”
It happened that something in his behavior having displeased me, I withdrew the skirt of communication, and removed the seal of my affection from him, and said: “Go, and take what course best suits thee; thou regardest not my counsel, follow thine own.” I overheard him as he was going, and saying:— “If the bat does not relish the company of the sun, the all-current brilliancy of that luminary can suffer no diminution.” He so expressed himself and departed, and his vagabond condition much distressed me: — the opportunity of enjoyment was lost, and a man is insensible to the relish of prosperity till he has tasted adversity: — return and slay me, for to die before thy face were far more pleasant than to survive in thy absence.
But, thanksgiving and praise to the Almighty, he did not return till after some interval, when that melodious pipe of David was cracked, and that handsome form of Joseph in its wane; when that apple his chin was overgrown with hair, like a quince, and the all-current lustre of his charms tarnished. He expected me to fold him in my arms; but I took myself aside and said: “When the down of loveliness flourished on thy cheek, thou drovest the lord of thy attractions from thy sight; now thou hast come to court his peace when thy face is thick set with fathahs and zammahs, or the bristles of a beard: — The verdant foliage of thy spring is turned yellow; place not thy kettle on my grate, for its fire is cooled. How long wilt thou display this pomp and vanity; hopest thou to regain thy former dominion? Make thy court to such as desire thee, sport thy airs on such as will hire thee: — The verdure of the garden, they have told us, is charming; that person (Sa’di) knows it who is relating that story; or, in other words, that the fresh-shooting down on their charmers’ cheeks is what the hearts of their admirers chiefly covet: — Thy garden is like a bed of chives: the more thou croppest it, the more it will shoot: — Last year thou didst depart smooth as an antelope, to-day thou art returned bearded like a pard. Sa’di admires the fresh-shooting down, not when each hair is stiff as a packing-needle: — Whether thou hast patience with thy beard, or weed it from thy face, this happy season of youth must come to a conclusion. Had I the same command of life as thou hast of beard, it should not escape me till doomsday.” I asked him and said: “What has become of the beauty of thy countenance, that a beard has sprung up round the orb of the moon?” He answered: “I know not what has befallen my face, unless it has put on black to mourn its departed charms.”
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XII
They shut up a parrot in the same cage with a crow. The parrot was affronted at his ugly look, and said: “What an odious visage is this, a hideous figure; what an accursed appearance, and ungracious demeanor! — Would to God, O raven of the desert! we were wide apart as the east is from the west: — The serenity of his peaceful day would change into the gloom of night, who on issuing forth in the morning might cross thy aspect. An ill-conditioned wretch like thyself should be thy companion; but where could we find such another in the world?”
But what is more strange, the crow was also out of all patience, and vexed to the soul at the society of the parrot. Bewailing his misfortune, he was railing at the revolutions of the skies; and, wringing the hands of chagrin, was lamenting his condition, and saying: “What an unpropitious fate is this; what ill-luck, and untoward fortune! Could they any way suit the dignity of me, who would in my day strut with my fellow-crows along the wall of a garden: — It were durance sufficient for a good and holy man that he should be made the companion of the wicked: — What sin have I committed that my stars in retribution of it have linked me in the chain of companionship, and immured me in the dungeon of calamity, with a conceited blockhead, and good-for-nothing babbler: — Nobody will approach the foot of a wall on which they have painted thy portrait; wert thou to get a residence in paradise, others would go in preference to hell.”
I have introduced this parable to show that however much learned men despise the ignorant, these are a hundredfold more scornful of the learned: — A zahid, or holy man, fell in company with some wandering minstrels. One of them, a charmer of Balkh, said to him: “If thou art displeased with us, do not look sour, for thou art already sufficiently offensive. — An assemblage is formed of roses and tulips, and thou art stuck up amidst them like a withered stalk; like an opposing storm, and a chilling winter blast; like a ball of snow, or lump of ice.”
XIII
I had an associate, who was for years the companion of my travels, partook of the same bread and salt, and enjoyed the many rights of a confirmed friendship. At last, on some trifling advantage, he gave me cause of umbrage, and our intimacy ceased. And notwithstanding all this, there was a hankering of good-will on both sides; in consequence of which I heard that he was one day reciting in a certain assembly these two couplets of my
writings:— “When my idol, or mistress, is approaching me with her tantalizing smiles, she is sprinkling more salt upon my smarting sores. How fortunate were the tips of her ringlets to come into my hand, like the sleeve of the generous in the hands of dervishes.” This society of his friends bore testimony, and gave applause, not to the beauty of this sentiment, but to the liberality of his own disposition in quoting it; while he had himself been extravagant in his encomiums, regretted the demise of our former attachment, and confessed how much he was to blame. I was made aware that he too was desirous of a reconciliation; and, having sent him these couplets, made my peace:— “Was there not a treaty of good faith between us, and didst not thou commence hostilities, and violate the compact? I relinquished all manner of society, and plighted my heart to thee; for I did not suspect that thou wouldst have so readily changed. If it still be thy wish to renew our peace, return, and be more dear to me than ever.”
XIV
A man had a beautiful wife, who died; but the mother, a decrepit old dotard, remained a fixture in his house, because of the dowry. He was teased to death by her company; but, from the circumstance of the dower, he had no remedy. In the meantime some of his friends having come to comfort him, one of them asked: “How is it with you, since the loss of that dear friend?” He answered: “The absence of my wife is not so intolerable as the presence of her mother: — They plucked the rose, and left me the thorn; they plundered the treasure, and let the snake remain. To have our eye pierced with a spear were more tolerable than to see the face of an enemy. It were better to break with a thousand friends than to put up with one rival.”
XV
In my youth I recollect I was passing through a street, and caught a glimpse of a moon-like charmer during the dog-days, when their heat was drying up the moisture of the mouth, and the samurn, or desert hot-wind, melting the marrow of the bones. From the weakness of human nature I was unable to withstand the darting rays of a noon-tide sun, and took refuge under the shadow of a wall, hopeful that somebody would relieve me from the oppressive heat of summer, and quench the fire of my thirst with a draught of water. All at once I beheld a luminary in the shadowed portico of a mansion, so splendid an object that the tongue of eloquence falls short in summing up its loveliness; such as the day dawning upon a dark night, or the fountain of immortality issuing from chaos. She held in her hand a goblet of snow-cooled water, into which she dropped some sugar, and tempered it with spirit of wine; but I know not whether she scented it with attar, or sprinkled it with a few blossoms from her own rosy cheek. In short, I received the beverage from her idol-fair hand; and, having drunk it off, found myself restored to a new life. “Such is not my parching thirst that it is to be quenched with the limpid element of water, were I to swallow it in oceans: — Joy to that happy aspect whose eye can every morning contemplate such a countenance as thine. A person intoxicated with wine lies giddy and awake half the night; but if intoxicated with the cup-bearer (God), the day of judgment must be his dawn or morning.”
XVI
In the year that Sultan Mohammed Khowarazm-Shah had for some political reason chosen to make peace with the king of Khota, I entered the metropolitan mosque at Kashghar, and met a youth incomparably lovely, and exquisitely handsome; such as they have mentioned in resemblance of him:— “Thy master instructed thee in every bold and captivating grace; he taught thee coquetry and confidence, tyranny and violence.” I have seen no mortal with such a form and temper, stateliness and manner; perhaps he learned these fascinating ways from an angel.
He held the introduction of the Zamakhshari Arabic grammar in his hand, and was repeating:— “Zaraba Zaidun Amranwa — Zaid beat Amru and is the assailant of Amru.” I said: “O my son! the Khowarazm and Khatayi sovereigns have made peace, and does war thus subsist between Zaid and Amru?” He smiled, and asked me the place of my nativity. I answered: “The territory of Shiraz.” He said: “Do you recollect any of Sa’di’s compositions?” I replied: “I am enamoured with the reader of the syntax, who, taking offence, assails me in like manner as Zaid does Amru. And Zaid, when read Zaidin, cannot raise his head; and how canst thou give a zammah to a word accented with a kasrah?”
He reflected a little within himself, and said: “In these parts we have much of Sa’di’s compositions in the Persian language; if you will speak in that dialect we shall more readily comprehend you, for you should address mankind according to their capacities.”
I replied: “Whilst thy passion was that of studying grammar, all trace of reason was erased from our hearts. Yes! the lover’s heart is fallen a prey to thy snare: we are occupied about thee, and thou art taken up with Amru and Zaid.”
On the morrow, which had been fixed on as the period of our stay, some of my fellow-travellers had perhaps told him such a one is Sa’di; for I saw that he came running up, and expressed his affection and regret, saying: “Why did you not during all this time tell us that a certain person is Sa’di, that I might have shown my gratitude by offering my service to your reverence.” I answered: “In thy presence I cannot even say that I am I!” — He said: “How good it were if you would tarry here for a few days, that we might devote ourselves to your service.” I replied: “That cannot be, as this adventure will explain to you: — In the hilly region I saw a great and holy man, who was content in living retired from the world in a cavern. I said: ‘Why dost thou not come into the city, that thy heart might be relieved from a load of servitude?’ He replied: ‘In it there dwell some wonderful and angel-faced charmers, and where the path is miry, elephants may find it slippery.’ — Having delivered this speech, we kissed each other’s head and face, and took our leaves: — What profits it to kiss our mistress’s cheek, and with the same breath to bid her adieu. Thou mightest say that the apple had taken leave of its friends by having this cheek red and that cheek yellow: — Were I not to die of grief on that day I say farewell, thou wouldst charge me with being insincere in my attachments.”
XVII
A ragged dervish accompanied us along with the caravan for Hijaz, and a certain Arab prince presented him with a hundred dinars for the support of his family. Suddenly a gang of Khafachah robbers attacked the caravan, and completely stripped it. The merchants set up a weeping and wailing, and made much useless lamentation and complaint:— “Whether thou supplicatest them, or whether thou complainest, the robbers will not return thee their plunder”: — all but that ragged wretch, who stood collected within himself, and unmoved by this adventure. I said: “Perhaps they did not plunder you of that money?” He replied: “Yes, they took it; but I was not so fond of my pet as to break my heart at parting with it. We should not fix our heart so on any thing or being as to find any difficulty in removing it.”
I said: “What you have remarked corresponds precisely with what once befell myself; for in my juvenile days I took a liking to a young man, and so sincere was my attachment that the Cabah, or fane, of my eye was his perfect beauty, and the profit of this life’s traffic his much-coveted society: — Perhaps the angels might in paradise, otherwise no living form can on this earth display such a loveliness of person. By friendship I swear that after his demise all loving intercourse is forbidden; for no human emanation can stand a comparison with him.
“All at once the foot of his existence stumbled at the grave of annihilation; and the sigh of separation burst from the dwelling of his family. For many days I sat a fixture at his tomb, and, of the many dirges I composed upon his demise, this is one:— ‘On that day, when thy foot was pierced with the thorn of death, would to God the hand of fate had cloven my head with the sword of destruction, that my eyes might not this day have witnessed the world without thee. Such am I, seated at the head of thy dust, as the ashes are seated on my own: — whoever could not take his rest and sleep till they first had spread a bed of roses and narcissuses for him: the whirlwind of the sky has scattered the roses of his cheek, and brambles and thorns are shooting from his grave.’
“After my separation from him I
came to a steady and firm determination, that during my remaining life I would fold up the carpet of enjoyment, and never re-enter the gay circle of society: — Were it not for the dread of its waves, much would be the profits of a voyage at sea; were it not for the vexation of the thorn, charming might be the society of the rose. Yesterday I was walking stately as a peacock in the garden of enjoyment; to-day I am writhing like a snake from the absence of my mistress.”
XVIII.
To a certain king of Arabia they were relating the story of Laila and Mujnun, and his insane state, saying: “Notwithstanding his knowledge and wisdom, he has turned his face towards the desert, and abandoned himself to distraction.” The king ordered that they bring him into his presence; and he reproved him, and spoke, saying: “What have you seen unworthy in the noble nature of man that you should assume the manners of a brute, and forsake the enjoyment of human society?”
Mujnun wept and answered:— “Many of my friends reproach me for my love of her, namely Laila. Alas! that they could one day see her, that my excuse might be manifest for me! — Would to God that such as blame me could behold thy face, O thou ravisher of hearts! that at the sight of thee they might, from inadvertency, cut their own fingers instead of the orange in their hands: — Then might the truth of the reality bear testimony against the semblance of fiction, what manner of person that was for whose sake you were upbraiding me.”
The king resolved within himself, on viewing in person the charms of Laila, that he might be able to judge what her form could be which had caused all this misery, and ordered her to be produced in his presence. Having searched through the Arab tribes, they discovered and presented her before the king in the courtyard of his seraglio. He viewed her figure, and beheld a person of a tawny complexion and feeble frame of body. She appeared to him in a contemptible light, inasmuch as the lowest menial in his harem, or seraglio, surpassed her in beauty and excelled her in elegance. Mujnun, in his sagacity, penetrated what was passing in the royal mind, and said: “It would behoove you, O king, to contemplate the charms of Laila through the wicket of a Mujnun’s eye, in order that the miracle of such a spectacle might be illustrated to you. Thou canst have no fellow-feeling for my disorder; a companion to suit me must have the self-same malady, that I may sit by him the livelong day repeating my tale; for by rubbing two pieces of dry fire-wood one upon another they will burn all the brighter: — had that grove of verdant reeds heard the murmurings of love which in detail of my mistress’s story have passed through my ear, it would somehow have sympathised in my pain. Tell it, O my friends, to such as are ignorant of love; would ye could be aware of what wrings me to the soul: — the anguish of a wound is not known to the hale and sound; we must detail our aches only to a fellow-sufferer. It were idle to talk of a hornet to him who has never during his life smarted from its sting. Till thy condition may in some sort resemble mine, my state will seem to thee an idle fable. Compare not my pain with that of another man; he holds salt in his hand, but I hold it on a wounded limb.”
The Collected Works of Saadi Page 18