Original content

English translation

At night, Farrukh, like a caravan traveler, descended secretly upon his relatives. He happened to walk in the bazaar one day, when his eyes fell upon the face of Firuz. Farrukh was astonished and went toward him, he embraced him and opened with a reply, "How did you fall here? Speak of your state, tell me news of the King and the sea." Firuz wove a few lies together; who knew the trickery of that dark-day wretch? He then opened his tongue to Farrukh, and asked news of Golrukh's condition. Since Farrukh was aware of his trickery, he lifted the veil from each and every story before him. When the dog Firuz became aware of that story, he displayed great joy and then departed, saying: "I am going to prepare the provisions for the road, for I am your companion in every place." He went and immediately informed Shapur: "The branch of your fortune has borne fruit this moment. Farrukhzad and Golrukh are secretly in such-and-such place; I have told you, now you know." King Shapur became such upon that answer that, you would say, his soul departed out of desire for Gol. Out of love for Gol, his nature boiled; out of impatience, his heart went out of hand like the wind. His heart boiled with hatred for Farrukh; he summoned ten clamorous men to himself, saying: "Seize Farrukh quickly at this moment, for he did evil to me, as was suspected. Cast him into the dust in abasement, for behaving with such gratitude toward me." He then told the servants sharply to suddenly seize Gol. In short, the commanders went like the wind to Farrukh and Gol in the morning. When Farrukh's eyes fell upon them, he realized that troubled situation. He leaped out from the rooftop path and hid; in a moment, you would say he vanished from the world. But they seized Gol with a hundred lamentations; they took a precious one with such abasement. The heartless Gol would not go out the door, she would not submit to the enemy's command. They dragged her in abasement to the court; that jasmine-bosomed one fell abased on the road. When the silver-bosomed one fell before the door, crystal fell from her embrace in shame. Again, she began to shed tears; the moon began to paint from the Pleiades. At last, they brought her in abasement to the king, who was waiting for her on the way. The two eyes of the king became bright with that light; his palace seemed a paradise from that houri. He saw her beauty exceeding all limits; what can I say of how he saw her? He saw a moon whose vanguard was the sun, and from it, a hundred souls and hearts were filled with blood at once. Her curls were twisted and bent like armor; her two eyebrows were knotted with anger. Thousands of folds from her curls were on her forehead; she was coming from China at that hour, and so she was. A world of goodness was the description of her face; two worlds full of sugar was one of her answers. The moon had placed its face on the path for her face; in anger at the king, her face was set against the king. Her lips had made sugar their private sanctuary, and had cut short the hand of the world from it. Her bosom was like raw silver seen from afar; she saw herself like a dim stone in comparison. Witchcraft wanted to learn from her eyes; she shot arrows with her eyelashes and demanded silver. Whoever saw the curls of that candle of Chigil, saw a path to the heart from each and every hair. Her mouth, which was the desire of someone like me, was like the eye of a needle when she opened it. If her eyebrow were not an arch, where would this sedition be in the horizons? Shapur became so enamored of her that he fell for her at a single glance. Like a reed, he girded his waist in love for that heart-stealer; with a hundred hearts, he tied his heart to that tight pouch of sugar. When the king's eyes became full of light from her face, he said in his heart: "May the evil eye be far from your face!" What did he know that this heart-stealer was like this? Without a doubt, she is the sedition of the earth. "In beauty, whatever I knew before was different; I was worshipping a star, but this was the moon!" "One can say that in the face of time, no one is unique in beauty like Gol." He said this and sent her to the palace; like a cypress, he sent her into his harem. At last, when the spring of light set, Shapur went to Gol at the time of evening prayer. He said to Gol: "O you who have put my heart in a spin, your eye has put intellect to sleep!" "The dust of your lane is more than tutty; an atom of union with you is more than alchemy." "From your tresses, the moon remains in darkness; from your face, it is bright from the moon to the fish." "Sugar has shown its teeth to your ruby lips; sometimes cheap, sometimes expensive." "The moon remains astonished at the sight of you; sometimes appearing, sometimes hidden." "Night runs from the shame of your tresses; sometimes coming and sometimes going." "You are, O soul-increasing moon-faced moon; what am I saying? You are a black-haired sun!" "It is you who have given light to the moon from your face; a heavenly moon, and a houri-born fish." "The world is a house of sorcery from your drunk eye; heaven is soul-sacrificing for your sorcerer-worshipping waist." "Know, O moon-faced one, that today on the way, I wanted to come to your service at court." "My heart was with the service of that pearl; but it becoming unseasonable was very hard." "Now, since there is no fly around this sugar, tonight you have no companion but me." "When the fly is gone, the sugar must be tasted; with a hundred souls, one sugar must be bought." He said this and went toward the tight pouch of sugar, wishing to embrace Gol tonight. Like the wind, that moon slapped his face so hard that fire leaped out from the eyes of that king. She drew such a sigh from the burning of her heart that she ended the day of Shapur's heart. She thrashed her hands and feet so wildly, like a blind person seen in a sea of blood. Even if Shapur received a blow, he held back; but Gol struck herself much without him. Although the heartless king had given his heart to her, he submitted to patience. Then the exalted Shapur said that they search for Farrukh much again. They searched much, but no trace appeared, and no news of that hidden one came to light. They sought him much from his relatives, but not a single one of them confessed. But they had given him his path; they made him escape from his well at night. So he hid in a well for ten days, and after ten days, he departed like the wind. Which swift-footed one? If it were lightning, it would be far behind one of his gallops. In a few days, that handsome messenger, from a far road, came near Khosrow. When Khosrow saw Farrukh so miserable, he was astonished by his extreme weeping. He said to him: "What befell you? Tell me the news. Open your tongue and speak of the events of the journey." "What happened to you that you became so worn out? You would say you were once existed but now became non-existent." Farrukh answered him about what had happened; he cried out against the tyrannical Firuz. He spoke again of his evil-doing, and wept and spoke of the secret in grief. Khosrow's heart boiled with anger at Firuz; the arrow of grief for Golrukh pierced his liver. He said to Farrukh: "That ill-born, ill-famed one showed his bad nature in the end." "What evil did I do to that wrongdoer, that he deemed this disloyalty permissible?" "I raised his head from the dust to the heavens; may there be dust on his head from the heavens!" "Since that dog was undoubtedly rejected by heaven, how would he know the right of bread and salt so quickly?" "If there is respite from the turning heaven, I will finally reach him like men." He said this and called a scribe; he uttered countless words of every kind. He ordered a letter to the tyrannical Shapur, and the scribe immediately wore out his pen. The treasurer brought silk so that his scribe could write with the pen of truth upon his silk.