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English translation

Towards Isfahan, by way of the meadow, King Malikshah was returning from a hunt. There was a meadow and a village along the way; He made camp there at evening time. Several of his slaves hurried off, And found a cow by the side of the road. They slaughtered it and ate it with delight; Then they returned to the army camp. The cow belonged to an old woman with a broken heart, Helpless day and night with a handful of orphans. Her sustenance and that of those captive orphans Was only when the cow gave milk. Several people looked to the cow, All lived relying on its backing. When the old woman received news of this, She lost her senses and was brought to her end. All night she was in wailing and sighs; She went to the bridge that was on the way. When Malikshah reached there in the morning, He saw the old woman with a bent back there. Hair like cotton, face like yellow dye, Come there captive with the orphans. With a cane in hand, back bent like a bow, She said, 'O son of Alp Arslan! If you give me justice at the head of this bridge, You will be saved from my heartache and my cries. Otherwise, before that head of the bridge and that Path (Sirat), I will demand justice; take heed now! If I become wretched from your oppression, Tomorrow before God I will seek your blood. From your oppression I don't know head from foot; Even though you are king, you cannot contend with God. Beware, beware, give me full justice on this bridge, So that you do not remain eternally stuck on that bridge. From all profit and loss, before and behind, This was enough for my orphans. You left the children hungry, You threw this old woman before the people. At dawn, one lament of this old woman Can bring down the manliness of a hundred Rustams. This does not reach me from the king of the world, But this reaches me from the turning of the sky. The fast-turning wheel has cut me hard; How can one contend with a rebel?' She said this, and like spring rain, She became tearful in lamentation with the orphans. An awe of her fell into the king's soul, A great commotion fell into the army because of her. He said, 'O mother, do not turn your heart from the king; Whatever you want, ask for it at the head of this bridge. So that I may answer you on this bridge, For I have no endurance for the head of that bridge.' 'What is the situation, O old woman?' She told him her situation. He gave her seventy cows from his own wealth. He said, 'Take these seventy cows, O old woman, In exchange, for this is from lawful wealth.' He said this, and called those slaves, Reprimanded them, and drove his gray horse off the bridge. When the time of dawn came for the old woman, The truth of that bounty took hold of her skirt. She performed ablution and began to pray; She put her face on the dirt and opened the door in her heart. She said, 'O Just Provider, Since Malikshah, with half a breath from a human, Out of generosity left no remainder upon me, You, who are eternally the Absolute Generous One, Show grace to him and do not hold him in bonds, And whatever you do not approve of him, overlook.' When Malikshah departed from that ruined place, A man from the devotees of religion saw him in a dream. He said, 'Behold, how did it go with you, O king?' He said, 'If that justice-seeking old widow Had not made that prayer for me, I would have nothing but eternal misery. My misfortune became good fortune; Because of her prayer, that hardship of mine did not remain. A world of burden fell from my neck; That woman freed me for eternity. Even though I was a man of kingdom and wealth, I came under the protection of an old woman. Who knows how the prayer of an old woman Is a shooter of arrows at the time of dawn? What an old woman does in a single dawn, I do not know if a whole month could achieve for my deliverance. If it were not for the mercy of that king, He would have remained forever in the bottom of the well. And if it were not for that prayer of the old woman, The fortune of religion would have come to ruin upon him. First there was the mercy of that monarch; That prayer became his companion in the end. Inevitably, the king was eternally saved; There is no station higher than being merciful.'