Rudaki
1.
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muzāriʿ akhrab makhfūf sālim
qasida
Oh, your excellency! Whether subject to praise or to pity,
Both men weep in secret pitifully.
What goes, goes. What comes, comes.
What was, was. What are tears but profligacy?
Would you have our planet gracefully turn?
It's the world; how could it move smoothly?
He's drunk who doesn’t know he drinks.
He mourns who doesn’t know he cries bitterly.
Go and spend your days weeping until Armageddon,
Shall we forever mourn all those departed dearly?
No matter how uncertain our lives, I prophecy tears while in this world
If one weeps at all such occasions mournfully.
Say, rather, fate is set above me,
Above all I set I heart upon: heavenly.
It’s not in the clouds, not hidden by an eclipse,
Yet it takes the sun and casts the world darkly.
You can command your hordes or even reserve your words. I fear.
Don’t declare victory for yourself, audaciously.
She rises over you, fixed high above,
In all her honor, glory and magnanimity.
2.
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khafīf sālim makhbūn
ghazal
No matter how long or short a life may be,
Everyone must die eventually.
Even a rope laid ever so long,
Must coil itself bindingly.
If you wish, live in unhappy hardship,
But if you want security, blessings and prosperity:
Then you’ll take little of this world below,
Take yourself from Ray, to Teraz flee!
This being and coming is your sleep.
Sleep has no dominion in reality.
This very day and death are one:
Who can tell one from the other separately?
3.
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ramal maḥdhūf
ghazal
The scent of the Muliyan rises,
The memory of gentle friends rises,
The sand of the Oxus runs its course,
My horse, riding o'er its flood, rises,
Oh Bokhara, be happy and live long,
May your lord live as long; your guest, he rises!
Your lord is the moon and Bokhara the sky:
The moon always in the sky rises!
Your lord is the cypress and Bokhara the garden:
The cypress always in the garden rises.
Daqiqi
1.
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mujtaṣs makhbūn maḥdhūf
ghazal
A dark night, your hair resembles,
A clear day, your bright cheek resembles,
Should a jeweler shine an agate
To watery luster, it, your lip, resembles.
I’ve spent a thousand nights in the garden of angels,
Their blooming flowers your breast resembles,
Two doe’s eyes and the blowing narcissus,
Each exactly your eye resembles,
I’ve seen a bow of Babylon, an arrow of Tir,
That, when drawn, your brow resembles,
I couldn’t even to a cypress compare your stature,
For the cypress, your stature resembles.
2.
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Hazaj makhfūf maḥdhūf
ghazal
Climbing and kindling, there the qibla of Zoroaster!
Sit and throw an ermine shawl about your shoulder:
All who worship fire must there return for warmth.
Those priests of Zoroaster return even to holy fire;
I never find cold, even wandering far from your temple,
The fire returns me while my heart and eye circumambulate you in a gyre.
If I put my hand unto your heart, your heart’s burning
Turns to charcoal what was once my finger.
Your face is a garden and all the garden violets;
Oh to grab a handful and to hold your hair!
Whoever kills me, kills me but births you.
Whoever births you, births you but kills me.
-
OR, ALTERNATIVELY
-
Kindling! Climbing! Oh, altar of Zoroaster!
Sit before it: Throw the ermine belly about your shoulder.
Many who worship here return for fading warmth,
Forced again to Ahura Mazda’s altar.
But not I. I never find the cold for never do I depart the fire.
The fire temple has become my heart, my eye, like a winepress.
If I put my finger to the heart, from the burning heart
The fingers will undoubtedly become charcoal in my hand
Oh your face is like a garden and all the garden is violets
I wish to pluck the violets from your tresses by the fistful
He who sews you, sews you and reaps me
He who reaps you, reaps you and sews me.