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

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 England. Abul Kasim Mansur is indeed a genuine epic poet, and for this reason his work is of genuine interest to the lovers of Homer, Vergil, and Dante. The qualities that go to make up an epic poem are all to be found in this work of the Persian bard. In the first place,