PERSIAN STUDIES

"Upon passing through Madāen and seeing the Tāq-e Kasrā", a qasida by Afzal al-Din Badil ibn `Ali ibn `Osmān Najjār Khāqāni (1127-1186/1199 CE)

هنگام عبور از مداین و دیدن طاق کسری از افضل الدین بدیل بن علی بن عثمان نجّار خاقانی

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1

The Palace of Madāen, (Madāen is known as Ctesiphon in English and Tisfun in modern Persian. According to Persian tradition, the palace, called Tāq-e Kasrā or Arch of Khosraw was built by Chosroes Anushirvān, Chosroes I. )

ایوان مدائن

2

Heed, Oh, admonition-discerning heart, learn lessons from the seen [what you see], beware
Recognize the Palace of Madāen as the mirror of admonitions.

هان ای دل عبرت‌بین از دیده عبر کن هان
ایوان مدائن را آئینهٔ عبرت دان

3

Once, by way of Tigris, lodge at Madāen
And from your eyes, run a second Tigris on the soil of Madāen

یک ره ز ره دجله منزل به مدائن کن
وز دیده دوم دجله بر خاک مدائن ران

4

Tigris, itself, weeps so, as a hundred Tigrises of blood, you’d say (the reddish-brown mineral and clay deposits create streaks in the river resembling blood)
From the heat of whose bloody tears, fire drips off [its=Tigris] lashes (the coloration of reddish mosses and other flora on its banks are like fire dripping from the lashes of the weeping river)

خود دجله چنان گرید صد دجلهٔ خون گویی
کز گرمی خونابش آتش چکد از مژگان

5

You see that when the lips [=banks] of Tigris foam at the mouth (the foam carried by the waves to the shore)
You’d say from the fever of its sigh, sores erupt on its lips, plenty (the foam residue left by the waves after they recede, resembles cold-sores)

بینی که لب دجله چون کف به دهان آرد
گوئی ز تف آهش لب آبله زد چندان

6

By the fire of lament, observe broiled the heart [liver] of Tigris (small earthen islands resemble heart/liver browned by broiling fire)
Have you ever heard of water getting broiled by fire?

از آتش حسرت بین بریان جگر دجله
خود آب شنیدستی کاتش کندش بریان

7

Weep onto Tigris again-and-again, and pay it zakāt from your eyes
Although the mouth of the sea receives zakāt from Tigris
(although Tigris is rich and lofty enough to pay tribute to the mighty sea, it is still deserving of the meager contribution of your tears. Note that /bar dajle/ can be read as "FOR Tigris [weep out of pity]" or "onto Tigris [shed tears of zakāt". Compare with line 17 which only has the first meaning, FOR.)

بر دجله‌ گری نونو وز دیده زکاتش ده
گرچه لب دریا هست از دجله زکات استان

8

Should Tigris mix the wind of its lips and the burning in its heart
(the wind blowing at its banks is “wind of its lips [banks]” = “cold sigh”; “burning” = “burning heat”)
Half of it freezes and half becomes a fire pit
(allusions to the magnitude of the coldness of its sighs of lament/regret and its burning pain)

گر دجله درآمیزد باد لب و سوز دل
نیمی شود افسرده، نیمی شود آتش‌دان

9

Since the palace chain unraveled at Madāen
(According to tradition, King Anushiravān had installed a long chain from the city center, ending with a bell inside the palace, so that anyone with a complaint could ring the bell to request an audience and ask for justice. As with the rest of the palace, the chain would have also been destroyed in the Arab conquest that spread Islam into Iran.)
Enchained became Tigris, as chain it grew twisted
(“it grew twisted” refers to the turbulence of its flow, which resembles a chain; “to become enchained” = “to be put in chains” is an expression meaning “to become violently insane” since they used to shackle down the violently insane to prevent them from harming themselves and others)

تا سلسله‌ٔ درگه بگسست مدائن را
در سلسله شد دجله، چون سلسله شد پیچان

10

Now and then, in the language of tears, call on the palace
May it be that in your heart’s ear, you hear the reply of the palace

گه‌گه به زبان اشک آواز ده ایوان را
تا بو که به گوش دل پاسخ شنوی ز ایوان

11

The parapet of every palace, delivers to you homilies, new anew
The homily of the top of the parapet, hear by the root of your teeth
(“hear by the root of teeth” the proximity of jaw bones to the inner ear allows hearing resonances not conveyed by normal sound waves through air; a rough English equivalent would be “hear what normal sound does not convey in the depth of your bones”)

دندانه‌ٔ هر قصری پندی دهدت نو‌نو
پند سر دندانه بشنو ز بن دندان

12

It says that: You are from dust, we are your dust now
Steps, two-three, walk over us, and tears, two-three, shed as well

گوید که تو از خاکی، ما خاک توایم اکنون
گامی دو سه بر ما نه و اشکی دو سه هم بفشان

13

From the lamenting of the owl, indeed, we reel in head pain
(Because owls are nocturnal and typically choose desolate places and ruins for habitat, they are considered bad omens in Persian, signifying destruction, ruin, and desolation. Their call is also like moaning, as if they wail and lament for what used to be before destruction turned it into their habitat.)
From your eyes, make wet-clay, soothe our head-ache
(“gel-aab” means wet-clay, e.g., used in combination with straw in construction [kaah-gel=straw-mud]. Because of its mild, pleasant odor, smelling it was prescribed to soothe nausea, head-aches, and other mild ailments.

از نوحهٔ جغد الحق مائیم به درد سر
از دیده گلابی کن، درد سر ما بنشان

14

Yes, no wonder [what makes you wonder about the fact] that in the grass-land of the world
Owl follows nightingale, lamentation follows chant

آری چه عجب داری کاندر چمن گیتی
جغد است پی بلبل، نوحه است پی الحان

15

We are the court of justice, such injustice befell us
(specifically, refers to the court of “Anushiravān The Just”)
Upon palaces of tyrants, [who knows] what [proportionally worse] calamity will befall!

ما بارگه دادیم، این رفت ستم بر ما
بر قصر ستم‌کاران تا خود چه رسد خذلان

16

You ask: Who has discomposed that universe-like [=heavenly] palace?
The decree of the turning universe, or the decree of the universe-turner!
(perhaps it was happenstance, or perhaps it was the will of God)

گوئی که نگون کرده ایوان فلک‌وش را
حکم فلک‌گردان یا حکم فلک‌گردان

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Returning from his second pilgrimage to Mecca, in 1168, Khāqāni visited the ruins of the Sassanid capital, Madāen (Tisfun in Persian; Ctesiphon in English) palace and wept for the grandeur of ancient Iran and the glory of the Sassanid Empire, which inspired him to compose this Qasida.

Khāqāni may have been motivated to visit the ruins of Madāen by the poems of Khayyām, who on his own pilgrimage to Mecca visited Madāen and composed the following two quatrains: Coo-Coo Gur & Gur.

Further reading, E.G. Browne, A Literary History of Persian, v. 2, pp. 391-399 PDF. Also, Encyclopædia Iranica: ḴĀQĀNI ŠERVĀNI by Anna Livia Beelaert. On Anushirvān, Richard Frye, History of Ancient Iran