The Vizier Kills Himself in Seclusion
From Rumi’s Masnavi (مثنوی معنوی), Book 1, section 32 of 171: How the vizier killed himself in seclusion (کشتن وزیر خویشتن را در خلوت). Below, each of its 12 couplets is given in Persian, followed by R. A. Nicholson’s English translation.
How the vizier killed himself in seclusion کشتن وزیر خویشتن را در خلوت
بعد از آن چل روز دیگر در ببست
خویش کشت و از وجود خود برست
After that, he shut the door for other forty days (and then) killed himself and escaped from his existence.
چون که خلق از مرگ او آگاه شد
بر سر گورش قیامت‌‌گاه شد
When the people learned of his death, there came to pass at his grave the scene of the Resurrection.
خلق چندان جمع شد بر گور او
موکنان جامه دران در شور او
So great a multitude gathered at his grave, tearing their hair, rending their garments in wild grief for him,
کان عدد را هم خدا داند شمرد
از عرب وز ترک و از رومی و کرد
That only God can reckon the number of them—Arabs and Turks and Greeks and Kurds.
خاک او کردند بر سرهای خویش
درد او دیدند درمان جای خویش
They put his (grave’s) earth on their heads; they deemed anguish for him to be the remedy for themselves.
آن خلایق بر سر گورش مهی
کرده خون را از دو چشم خود رهی
During a month those multitudes over his grave made a way for blood from their eyes (shed tears of anguish).
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