"Payne Volume IV" - читать интересную книгу автора (Paynes Versions)

And what another saith:
      Men are a latent malady; Count not on them, I counsel thee.
      An if thou look into their case, They're full of guile and perfidy.
And yet a third:
      The company of men will profit thee in nought, Except to pass away the time in idle prate;
      So spare thou to converse with them, except it be For gain of lore and wit or mending of estate.
And a fourth
      If a quickwitted man have made proof of mankind, I have eaten of them, where but tasted hath he,
      And have seen their affection but practice and nought But hypocrisy found their religion to be.'
'O my father,' said Ali, 'I hear and obey: what more shall I do?' 'Do good when thou art able thereto,' answered his father; 'be ever courteous and succourable to men and profit by all occasions of doing a kindness; for a design is not always easy of accomplishment; and how well saith the poet:
      'Tis not at every time and season that to do Kind offices, indeed, is easy unto you;
      So, when the occasion serves, make haste to profit by't, Lest by and by the power should fail thee thereunto.'
'I hear and obey,' answered Ali; 'what more?' 'Be mindful of God,' continued Mejdeddin, 'and He will be mindful of thee. Husband thy wealth and squander it not; for, if thou do, thou wilt come to have need of the least of mankind. Know that the measure of a man's worth is according to what his right hand possesses: and how well saith the poet:
      If wealth should fail, there is no friend will bear me company, But whilst my substance yet abounds, all men are friends to me.
      How many a foe for money's sake hath companied with me! How many a friend for loss thereof hath turned mine enemy!'
'What more?' asked Ali. 'O my son,' said Mejdeddin, 'take counsel of those who are older than thou and hasten not to do thy heart's desire. Have compassion on those that are below thee, so shall those that are above thee have compassion on thee; and oppress none, lest God set over thee one who shall oppress thee. How well saith the poet:
      Add others' wit to thine and counsel still ensue; For that the course of right is not concealed from two.
      One mirror shows a man his face, but, if thereto Another one he add, his nape thus can he view.
And as saith another:
      Be slow to move and hasten not to match thy heart's desire: Be merciful to all, as thou on mercy reckonest;
      For no hand is there but the hand of God is over it, And no oppressor but shall be with worse than he opprest.
Ane yet another:
      Do no oppression, whilst the power thereto is in thine hand; For still in peril of revenge the sad oppressor goes.
      Thine eyes will sleep anon, what while the opprest, on wake, call down Curses upon thee, and God's eye shuts never in repose.
Beware of drinking wine, for it is the root of all evil: it does away the reason and brings him who uses it into contempt; and how well saith the poet:
      By Allah, wine shall never invade me, whilst my soul Endureth in my body and my thoughts my words control!
      Not a day long will I turn me to the zephyr-freshened bowl, And for friend I'll choose him only who of wine-bibbing is whole.
This, then,' added Mejdeddin, 'is my charge to thee; keep it before thine eyes, and may God stand to thee in my stead.' Then he swooned away and kept silence awhile. When he came to himself, he besought pardon of God and making the profession of the Faith, was admitted to the mercy of the Most High. His son wept and lamented for him and made due preparation for his burial. Great and small attended him to the grave and the readers recited the Koran about his bier; nor did Ali Shar omit aught of what was due to the dead. Then they prayed over him and committed him to the earth, graving these words upon his tomb:
      Created of the dust thou wast and cam'st to life And eloquence didst learn and spokest many a word;
      Then to the dust again returnedst and wast dead, As 'twere from out the dust, indeed, thou'dst never stirred.
His son Ali Shar grieved for him and mourned him after the wont of men of condition; nor did he cease therefrom till his mother died also, not long afterward, when he did with her as he had done with his father. Then he sat in the shop, selling and buying and consorting with none of God's creatures, in accordance with his father's injunction.
On this wise he abode for a year, at the end of which time there came in to him certain whoreson fellows by craft and companied with him, till he turned with them to lewdness and swerved from the right way, drinking wine in goblets and frequenting the fair night and day; for he said in himself, 'My father amassed this wealth for me, and if I spend it not, to whom shall I leave it? By Allah, I will not do save as saith the poet:
      If all the days of thy life thou get And heap up treasure, to swell thy hoard,
      When wilt thou use it and so enjoy That thou hast gathered and gained and stored?'
Then he ceased not to squander his wealth all tides of the day and watches of the night, till he had made away with it all and abode in evil case and troubled at heart. So he sold his shop and lands and so forth, and after this he sold the clothes off his body, leaving himself but one suit. Then drunkenness left him and thought came to him, and he fell into melancholy.
One day, when he had sat from day-break to mid-afternoon without breaking his fast, he said in himself, 'I will go round to those on whom I spent my wealth: it may be one of them will feed me this day.' So he went the round of them all; but, as often as he knocked at any one's door, the man denied himself and hid from him, till he was consumed with hunger. Then he betook himself to the bazaar, where he found a crowd of people, assembled in a ring round somewhat, and said in himself, 'I wonder what ails the folk to crowd together thus? By Allah, I will not remove hence, till I see what is within yonder ring!' So he made his way into the ring and found that the crowd was caused by a damsel exposed for sale. She was five feet high, slender of shape, rosy-cheeked and high-bosomed and surpassed all the people of her time in beauty and grace and elegance and perfection; even as saith one, describing her:
      As she wished, she was created, after such a wise that lo! She in beauty's mould was fashioned, perfect, neither less no mo'.
      Loveliness itself enamoured of her lovely aspect is; Coyness decks her and upon her, pride and pudour sweetly show.
      In her face the full moon glitters and the branch is as her shape; Musk her breath is, nor midst mortals is her equal, high or low.
      'Tis as if she had been moulded out of water of pure pearls; In each member of her beauty is a very moon, I trow.
And her name was Zumurrud.
When Ali Shar saw her, he marvelled at her beauty and grace and said, 'By Allah, I will not stir hence till I see what price this girl fetches and know who buys her!' So he stood with the rest of the merchants, and they thought he had a mind to buy her, knowing the wealth he had inherited from his parents. Then the broker stood at the damsel's head and said, 'Ho, merchants! Ho, men of wealth! Who will open the biddings for this damsel, the mistress of moons, the splendid pearl, Zumurrud the Curtain-maker, the aim of the seeker and the delight of the desirous? Open the biddings, and on the opener be nor blame nor reproach.'
So one merchant said, 'I bid five hundred dinars for her.' 'And ten,' said another. 'Six hundred,' cried an old man named Reshideddin, blue-eyed and foul of face. 'And ten,' quoth another. 'I bid a thousand,' rejoined Reshideddin; whereupon the other merchants were silent and the broker took counsel with the girl's owner, who said, 'I have sworn not to sell her save to whom she shall choose; consult her.' So the broker went up to Zumurrud and said to her, 'O mistress of moons, yonder merchant hath a mind to buy thee.' She looked as Reshideddin and finding him as we have said, replied, 'I will not be sold to a grey-beard, whom decrepitude hath brought to evil plight.' 'Bravo,' quoth I, 'for one who saith:
      I asked her for a kiss one day, but she my hoary head Saw, though of wealth and worldly good I had great plentihead;
      So, with a proud and flouting air, her back she turned on me And, "No, by Him who fashioned men from nothingness!" she said.
      "Now, by God's truth, I never had a mind to hoary hairs, And shall my mouth be stuffed, forsooth, with cotton, ere I'm dead?"
'By Allah,' quoth the broker, 'thou art excusable, and thy value is ten thousand dinars!' So he told her owner that she would not accept of Reshideddin, and he said, 'Ask her of another.' Thereupon another man came forward and said, 'I will take her at the same price.' She looked at him and seeing that his beard was dyed, said, 'What is this lewd and shameful fashion and blackening of the face of hoariness?' And she made a great show of amazement and repeated the following verses:
      A sight, and what a sight, did such a one present To me! A neck, to beat with shoes, by Allah, meant!
      And eke a beard for lie a coursing-ground that was And brows for binding on of ropes all crook'd and bent. (12)
      Thou that my cheeks and shape have ravished, with a lie Thou dost disguise thyself and reck'st not, impudent;