Piruz

Piruz, at ease about Hurmuz and free
From care, came, sat upon the royal throne,
As well became a Shah that worshipped God,
And at the outset thus harangued the chiefs : —
" Ye worshipful and noble lords ! I ask
The Judge that needeth naught to grant to me
Long life, a due regard for great and small
As their conditions are, abundant wisdom.
And happy days. Longsuffering is the crown
Upon humanity ; the hasty man
Is ever in abasement Wisdom's pillars
Are equity and mercy, its adornment

Is bounty's gate, the tongue of eloquence
Its glory, while its plumes are hardihood
And fortitude. How shall mere high estate,
If wisdom fail, enjoy the throne of greatness ?
E'en sages are but mortal and possess not
More Grace than had Jamshid who died, what time
His crown had reached the moon, and gave another
His royal seat. None can abide on earth
For aye. Take refuge then with God from ill,
And all is said."

Wise and untouched by evil
He ruled one year with justice and good counsel.
Next year the face of heaven was dry, the water
Shrank in the streams till it became like musk.
The third and fourth year it was even so,
And all men were in misery through the drought ;
The mouth of heaven became as dry as dust,
And river-water was a precious drug ;
There was no room to stand, such multitudes
Of men and beasts lay dead. The king of kings
Beheld that portent, took off tax and toll,
And in each city where he kept his stores
Bestowed them freely on both small and great.
A proclamation issued from the court : —
" Distribute, O ye men of name and might !
Such grain as ye possess and heap instead
Your treasuries with coins struck by Piruz.
Whoe'er possesseth hoarded stores of grain,
Or sheep or oxen roaming at their will,
Let him dispose thereof at his own price,
For lives are perishing for lack of food."
He sent another letter in all haste
To every officer and potentate : —
" Ope wide your barns to all folk everywhere
That are in need. Should young or old and feeble
Die lacking bread — a victim to the famine —
I will pour out his blood that hath the barn,
For he hath scorned God's work. His waist will I
Cleave with the trenchant scimitar and wreck
His life."

He ordered folk to quit their homes,
And coming plainwards lift their hands in plaint.
A cry of bitter weeping and distress,
Of pain and consternation rose to heaven ;
On hill and waste, in desert and in cave,
They called on God for mercy. On this wise
For seven years both small and great beheld
No verdure anywhere. With Farwardin,
The eighth year, rose a glorious cloud which rained
Pearls on the parched up soil. The scent of musk
Rose from the gardens while the hail that fell
Lay in the mud like pears within a bowl ;
The rainbow was resplendent in the sky,
The age escaped the ill of evil men,
And everywhere the bow was strung again.

Now when Piruz had 'scaped that day of stress
He sat in peace upon the throne of kingship,
He built himself a city which he bade
Call Piruz-Ram, the world hath good thereof:
For 'tis the pleasance of the glorious Shahs.
He built withal Badan-Piruz, far-famed,
A place of peace and joy, now Ardabil,
Where Caesar hath of right his boundary.
Whenas Piruz had prospered all these parts,
And made thereby the hearts of wise men glad,
He gave a largess to his noble troops,
And gat him ready to attack the Turkmans.
In that campaign Hurmuz was in the van
With troops new-levied ; after Shah Piruz
Kubad led on the army like a blast ;
Piruz' pure son was he, wise, and a bough
That brought forth fruit. Balash, the younger son,
A man of Grace and justice, sat rejoicing
Upon the throne while one of Pars, a man

Of high renown called by the king Sarkhan,
Was bidden by Piruz : ' " Abide thou here
As upright minister before Balash."

Piruz set forward with his troops, his treasure,
And gear of war, to fight with Khushnawaz.
Now brave Bahram had marked the boundary
By setting up a column on the plain
With this inscription by the king of kings : —
" Let not a Turkman or Iranian
Transgress this boundary on any wise,
Or pass across the river."

When Piruz,

The lion-queller, reached that spot he saw
The mark set by the monarch of Iran,
And thus addressed his chiefs : " By this same token
Will I erect with scimitar and treasure
A tower against the Turkmans so that none
May suffer from the Haitalians. When 'tis raised
On the Tarak, and when their chiefs shall bring
The former treaty, I will say : " Bahram Gur
Did thus by manhood, wisdom, might, and Grace,
But I will leave no trace of Khushnawaz,
Haitalian or Turkman, high or low.' '

When Khushnawaz, son of the Khan, had heard : —
" The Shah and all his host have crossed Jihun
Against the treaty that Bahram Gur made :
Fresh war and strife have come upon the land,"
A veteran scribe was called by his command.

He wrote a letter to the king of earth.
With praises of him from the righteous Judge,
Then said : " Since thou departest from the pact
Made by just kings I will not call thee royal.
Thine ancestors had acted never so,
Those rulers of the world elect and pure.
By breaking thus the compact of the Persians,
And flinging to the dust the mark of greatness,
Thou forcest me to break the treaty also,
And draw the scimitar in self-defence."

He wrote at large and sent too many gifts.
A noble cavalier and eloquent
Went with the letter which when Shah Piruz
Had read he raged against that famous prince
And bade the envoy : " Rise and get thee gone,
Return to that base man and say to him : —
Bahram concluded terms of peace whereby

The country was your own to the Tarak,
But now thou hast the whole to the Jihun,
Hill, dale, and desert, all alike are thine.

'Behold ! I lead a vast, a noble host,
And warriors bent on fight, and I will leave not
For long on earth the shade of Khushnawaz.' " '
The envoy came like flying dust and told
What he had heard. When Khushnawaz had hearkened
Thereto, and read what had been writ to him,
He called his scattered followers to horse,
Led forth the army to the battlefield,
And set upon a lance's point the treaty
Accorded to his grandsire by Bahram
To this effect : " Our frontier is Jihun."
He chose a man of mark among the troops —
One who was shrewd of heart and eloquent—
And said : " Approach Piruz with courteous words,
Hear his reply, and say : " I will confront thee
Upon the march with thine own grandsire's treaty —
That man of lofty fortune, thine own guide —
Set on a spearhead like a shining sun
Before the host that all possessed of wisdom
May look upon the patent of the just.
I shall be praised while thou wilt be condemned,
And called : " The impious Shah." God and his wor-
shippers,

And subjects everywhere, will not approve
That any one should seek to do injustice,
And break the treaties of the kings of kings.
None like to Shah Bahram for equity
And manhood e'er set crown upon his head.
God is my witness, and it is not well
To have to make appeal to Him, that thou
Art with injustice seeking war with me
In falling thus upon me with thy host.
Herein thou wilt be not victorious,
And likewise get no fruitage from good fortune.
Henceforward I shall send no messengers :
God will avail to aid me in this fight.' '

The envoy came dust-swift with this dispatch,
And to Piruz repeated all these words.
When that haught Shah had read what Khushnawaz
Had written in the letter he was wroth,
And said thus to the envoy : " One of years
And world-experience would speak not like that ;
But if from Chach thou comest o'er the river
My spearheads are prepared to welcome thee."

The messenger returned to Khushnawaz,
Spake with him privily at large, and said : —
" I see not in Piruz a reverence
For God ; he hath not wisdom for his guide ;
He careth only for revenge and strife,
And walketh not according to God's will."

When Khushnawaz had heard these words he sought
To God for shelter, making supplication,
And saying : " O Thou Judge that judgest right,
And art the Master both of wind and dust !
Thou knowest that iniquitous Piruz
Is not in prowess better than Bahram.
He speaketh words unjust and fain would win
Addition by the scimitar. Break Thou

His foot-hold from the earth. Oh ! may he have
No strength, no wit, no heart ! "

Around his host
He dug a trench which he made shift to hide-

'Twas lasso-deep and twenty cubits wide.

This done, he called on God and marched his powers
From Samarkand. On that side Shah Piruz,
The frantic, led his. troops on like a blast ;
On this side Khushnawaz with fearful heart
"Prayed privily before the holy Judge.
The drums and trumpets sounded in both hosts,
The air was ebon with the armies' dust,
And from them both such showers of arrows rained
That blood ran down like water in a stream.
Then, like a dust-cloud, Shah Piruz advanced
With mace and Ruman helm, and as he drew
Anear to Khushnawaz, the Turkmans' chief
Retreated, turned his rein, and showed his back.
The foeman followed fiercely. Shah Piruz
Spurred forward with few followers and fell
With others — chiefs and Lions of the day
Of battle — in the fosse, such as Hurmuz
His brother, glorious Kubad and others —
Great men and princes of the royal race-
Till seven had fallen headlong, men of name
With golden casques. Then Khushnawaz returned
Rejoicing to the fosse and lifted thence
The living while the throne bewailed their fortune.
Now Shah Piruz, that chief of chiefs endowed
With Grace and state, had broken head and back,
While of the princes, save Kubad, none lived :
Thus host and empire went adown the wind.
Then Khushnawaz advanced with heart content,
And head exalted with his warrior-host,
And gave to spoil the baggage and the foe,
For right and left were indistinguishable.
They made some prisoners and what numbers more
Were stretched by arrows on the sombre soil !
'Tis not for world-lords to be covetous,

For hearts that covet are the dark dust's mate ;
The never-resting sky ordaineth thus

Alike for subjects and for king's estate,
And wringeth its own fosterling, be he

A fool or wisdom's pillar. None can stay
Upon this earth of ours eternally.

Make right thy provand : naught is left to say.
When Khushnawaz had crossed the fosse his troops
Lacked not for wealth. They bound Kubad with

fetters
Of iron, heedless of his throne and race.

When tidings reached the people of Iran
About the fosse and how Piruz had fought,
A wail of anguish went up from the land
For all those princes — men of high degree —
And when the tidings had been certified
Balash descended from his golden seat,
Plucked out his royal locks and strewed sad dust
Upon the throne. Within Iran the host,
The cities and the women, men, and children,
All wailed, all rent the hair and tore the face
For grief, talked of the Shah and yearned for him ;
All sat in dole and woe while great and small
Took thought what course to choose and whether they
Should quit Iran and see where fell the fray ?