English
The Reign of Azarmdokht
Another daughter, Azarmdokht by name,
came to power, crowned among the great.
She came and sat upon the royal throne,
and took this world firmly into her hands.
First she said: 'O wise ones,
you who have seen the world and mastered its affairs,
Let us run everything by justice and by law,
so that from now on even a brick can be our pillow.
Whoever holds me dear as a friend,
to that person I will be like a protector.
But anyone who breaks his pledge to me,
and turns away from custom and the path of reason,
I will string his body up in disgrace,
be he Persian, Arab, or Roman, no matter which.'
She stayed upon the throne for four months;
in the fifth, her reign came crashing down.
Through Azarm the world grew without honor,
and the course of her fortune slipped away.
She too passed on, and the throne was left kingless,
leaving the malicious to get what they wished.
This is the way of the turning wheel of fate:
full of spite toward the very ones it raised.