Original content

English translation

Salman Savaji — may God the Exalted have mercy upon him. He is an eloquent poet and a fluent speaker; in the smoothness of his expressions and the subtlety of his allusions he is without peer, and he has composed odes in reply to the masters. Some are finer than the originals, some inferior, and some equal to them. He possesses many distinctive meanings of his own, and he has introduced into his own verses many of the meanings of the masters — especially those of Kamal Isma'il — and since that form turned out finer and the manner more pleasing, there is no ground for reproach or blame. A fine meaning is like a witness of a pure body, who, however many different garments they clothe upon it; the robe of shame is the very last garment placed on it, even if, in its beauty, they clothe it in more than before. It is a mark of skill that they should strip the old woolen cloak from its shoulders and clothe it in satin and fine silk. He has two masnavi books: one is 'Jamshid and Khurshid,' in which he took such pains that he carried it beyond the savor of poetry, and the other is the 'Firaq-nama' (Book of Separation), which is a marvelous book and a graceful composition. His ghazals too are many, both natural and artful; but since they are empty of the savor of love and affection which is the aim of the ghazal, the temperament of people of taste does not incline toward them. Among his fragments (muqatta'at) are these few couplets: O heart, how can you ever fill the bosom of greed? You, out of covetousness whose three letters are hollow within. My dear one, dwell in dervishhood and contentment, for abasement is born of greed, and honor of contentment. If the foot of the wealthy should slip, it is a light matter; may fortune attend the head of dervishhood and contentment.