Persian Literature, Volume 1, Comprising The Shah Nameh | Page 6

a
man, despite his boisterous gladsomeness and his overflowing joy in
what the present has to offer, in whom there is nothing common,
nothing low. "The Garden of Paradise may be pleasant," he tells us,
"but forget not the shade of the willow-tree and the fair margin of the
fruitful field." He is very human; but his humanity is deeply ethical in
character.
Much more than Omar and Sa'di, Háfiz was a thorough Sufi. "In one
and the same song you write of wine, of Sufism, and of the object of
your affection," is what Sháh Shuja said to him once. In fact, we are
often at an entire loss to tell where reality ends and Sufic vacuity
commences. For this Mystic philosophy that we call Sufism patched up
a sort of peace between the old Persian and the conquering

Mohammedan. By using veiled language, by taking all the every-day
things of life as mere symbols of the highest transcendentalism, it was
possible to be an observing Mohammedan in the flesh, whilst the mind
wandered in the realms of pure fantasy and speculation. While enjoying
Háfiz, then, and bathing in his wealth of picture, one is at a loss to tell
whether the bodies he describes are of flesh and blood, or incorporeal
ones with a mystic background; whether the wine of which he sings
really runs red, and the love he describes is really centred upon a mortal
being. Yet, when he says of himself, "Open my grave when I am dead,
and thou shalt see a cloud of smoke rising out from it; then shalt thou
know that the fire still burns in my dead heart--yea, it has set my very
winding-sheet alight," there is a ring of reality in the substance which
pierces through the extravagant imagery. This the Persians themselves
have always felt; and they will not be far from the truth in regarding
Háfiz with a very peculiar affection as the writer who, better than
anyone else, is the poet of their gay moments and the boon companion
of their feasts.
Firdusi, Omar, Sa'di, Háfiz, are names of which any literature may be
proud. None like unto them rose again in Persia, if we except the great
Jami. At the courts of Sháh Abbas the Great (1588-1629) and of Akbar
of India (1556-1605), an attempt to revive Persian letters was indeed
made. But nothing came that could in any measure equal the heyday of
the great poets. The political downfall of Persia has effectually
prevented the coming of another spring and summer. The pride of the
land of the Sháh must now rest in its past.
[Illustration: (Signature of Richard Gottheil)]
Columbia University, June 11, 1900.

CONTENTS
THE SHÁH NÁMEH
Introduction Kaiúmers Húsheng Tahúmers Jemshíd Mirtás-Tází, and
His Son Zohák Kavah, the Blacksmith Feridún Feridún and His Three
Sons Minúchihr Zál, the Son of Sám The Dream of Sám Rúdábeh
Death of Minúchihr Nauder Afrásiyáb Marches against Nauder
Afrásiyáb Zau Garshásp Kai-Kobád Kai-Káús The Seven Labors of
Rustem Invasion of Irán by Afrásiyáb The Return of Kai-Káús Story of
Sohráb The Story of Saiáwush Kai-Khosráu Akwán Díw The Story of

Byzun and Maníjeh Barzú, and His Conflict with Rustem Súsen and
Afrásiyáb The Expedition of Gúdarz The Death of Afrásiyáb The
Death of Kai-Khosráu Lohurásp Gushtásp, and the Faith of Zerdusht
The Heft-Khan of Isfendiyár Capture of the Brazen Fortress The Death
of Isfendiyár The Death of Rustem Bahman Húmaí and the Birth of
Dáráb Dáráb and Dárá Sikander Firdusi's Invocation Firdusi's Satire on
Mahmud
THE RUBÁIYÁT
Introduction Omar Khayyám The Rubáiyát
THE DIVAN
Introduction Fragment by Háfiz The Divan

THE SHÁH NÁMEH
by
FIRDUSI
(_Abul Kasim Mansur_)
[_Translated into English by James Atkinson_]

The system of Sir William Jones in the printing of Oriental words has
been kept in view in the following work, viz.: The letter a represents
the short vowel as in _bat, á_ with an accent the broad sound of a in
_hall, i_ as in _lily, í_ with an accent as in _police, u_ as in _bull, ú_
with an accent as in _rude, ó_ with an accent as o in pole, the
diphthong ai as in _aisle, au_ as in the German word kraut or ou in
house.

INTRODUCTION
When Sir John Lubbock, in the list of a hundred books which he
published, in the year 1886, as containing the best hundred worth
reading, mentioned the "Sháh Námeh" or "Book of Kings," written by
the Persian poet Firdusi, it is doubtful whether many of his readers had
even heard of such a poem or of its author. Yet Firdusi, "The Poet of
Paradise" (for such is the meaning of this pen-name), is as much the
national poet of Persia as Dante is of Italy or Shakespeare of