Untitled

40 .
SECONP
DISCOURSE. ON POETS
arrived at the Court of Chag'naniyan, it was the season of Spring
and the Amfr was,at the branding-ground. Abu'l-Muzaffar, as I
1 mares
have heard, nad 18,000 breeding
1 each one" of which wa"s , '
fqllowed by its colt. And every year the Amir used to go out
to brand (rv) the colts, and [at this momen he happened to be at
ithe place where the branding was done while ; 2
] 'Amid As'ad,
who was his steward, was at the court preparing provisions to be
conveyed to the Amfr. To him Farrukhf went, and recited a
qasida, and submitted to him the poem he had composed for the
Amfr.
Now 'Amfd As'ad was a man of parts and a patron of poets,
and in Farrukhf s verse he recognized rpoetry at once fresh*, sweet,
pleasing and masterly, while seeing,.the man himselfto be an illproportioned
Sagzf, clothed in a torn jubba worn anyhow 3 with
,
a huge turban on his head after the manner of the Sagzfs, with
the most unpleasing- feet and shoes ; and this poetry, withal, in
the seventh heaven. He could not believe that it had been com-
posed by this "
Sagzf, and, to prove him, said, The Amfr is at the,
branding-ground, whither I go to wait upon him : and thither I
will take thee also, for it is a mighty pleasant spot
" World within world of verdure wilt thou see "
full of tents and lamps like stars, and from each tent come the
strains of the lute, and friends sit together, drinking wine( and
making merry, while before the Amfr's pavilion a great
fire is
kindled, in size like unto several mountains, whereat they brand
the colts. And the Amfr, with the goblet in one hand and the
lacsoo ,in the other, drinks wine and gives away horses. Compose;
now, a qasida, suitable to the occasion, describing the brandingground,
so that I may take thee before the Amfr."
That night Farrukhf went and composed a very fine qasida,
which next morning he brought before 'Amfd A^s'ad. This is the
qasida* :
1 The variant is
.JS'j explained in the margin of L. as1 meaning
which I
originally translated "roadster." The verb ^)X*Aj,
from which
seems to be derived, appears to be a variant of
j^o'j-
2 These words are omitted in the printed edition.
t
3
Pishupas, "hind before." , ,
4 See pp. \\t-\\Y of the lithographed edition of Farrukhi's works published- at
Tihran for Mirza Mahdi Kha"n BaddyP-nigdr, poetically surnamed Mlkhjis, irt
A.H. 1301. Of the 52 bayts there given, only 22 are cited in the Cfvihdr Maqdla.
The poem is also given by D^ ^tshah (pp. oo-o v of my edition). Only the more
important variants are given
i. e.