The Slave Angry at No Reply from the King
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 4, section 70 of 137: How the slave was indignant because no reply to his letter arrived from the king (آشفتن آن غلام از نارسیدن جواب رقعه از قبل پادشاه). Below, each of its 12 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
How the slave was indignant because no reply to his letter arrived from the king. آشفتن آن غلام از نارسیدن جواب رقعه از قبل پادشاه
این بیابان خود ندارد پا و سر
بی‌جواب نامه خستست آن پسر
Truly this desert hath no head or foot (top or bottom). That youth, (being) without a reply to his letter, is aggrieved
کای عجب چونم نداد آن شه جواب
با خیانت کرد رقعه‌بر ز تاب
And says, “Oh, ‘tis a wonder. How did the king give me no reply? Or (perchance) the carrier of the letter behaved treacherously because of the torment (of envy),
رقعه پنهان کرد و ننمود آن به شاه
کو منافق بود و آبی زیر کاه
And concealed the letter and did not show it to the king; for he was a hypocrite and (like) a piece of water beneath straw.
رقعه‌ی دیگر نویسم ز آزمون
دیگری جویم رسول ذو فنون
I will write another letter by way of test and seek another accomplished messenger.”
بر امیر و مطبخی و نامه‌بر
عیب بنهاده ز جهل آن بی‌خبر
That heedless man ignorantly puts the blame on the Amir and the steward and the letter-carrier.
هیچ گرد خود نمی‌گردد که من
کژروی کردم چو اندر دین شمن
Never does he go round about (inspect) himself and say, “I have acted perversely, like the idolater in (turning away from’ the true) religion.”
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by: Reza about (category: Masnavi, Persian Poetry)
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