Why Dalqak Married a Harlot
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 2, section 53 of 113: How Dalqak excused himself to the Sayyid-i Ajall (who asked him) why he had married a harlot (عذر گفتن دلقک با سید که چرا فاحشه را نکاح کرد). Below, each of its 10 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
How Dalqak excused himself to the Sayyid-i Ajall (who asked him) why he had married a harlot. عذر گفتن دلقک با سید که چرا فاحشه را نکاح کرد
گفت با دلقک شبی سید اجل
قحبهای را خواستی تو از عجل
One night the Sayyid-i Ajall said to Dalqak, “You have married a harlot in haste.
با من این را باز میبایست گفت
تا یکی مستور کردیمیت جفت
You ought to have disclosed this (matter) to me, so that we might have made a chaste (woman) your wife.”
گفت نه مستور صالح خواستم
قحبه گشتند و ز غم تن کاستم
Dalqak replied, “I have (already) married nine chaste and virtuous women: they became harlots, and I wasted away with grief.
خواستم این قحبه را بیمعرفت
تا ببینم چون شود این عاقبت
I married this harlot without (previous) acquaintance (with her), in order to see how this one (also) would turn out in the end.
عقل را من آزمودم هم بسی
زین سپس جویم جنون را مغرسی
Often have I tried (sound) intelligence; henceforth I will seek a nursery for insanity.”
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by: Reza about (category: Masnavi)
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