English
The Hidden Treasure of Jamshid
The next week he went out to hunt again, he and the priests and the noble captains of the army.
A leader of men came rushing up like a raging wind, a boar's spear in his hand.
The chief asked where in the ranks of the army King Bahram might be found.
Everyone said to him, 'What do you want with the king? Tell us the reason.'
He answered, 'Until I see the king's own face, I will speak no word to the army.'
A priest said to him, 'Tell us what you must; you would not even know the king of the world by sight.'
They brought the seeker before the king, a man so wise and eloquent.
He came, and when he saw Bahram he said, 'I have a matter to tell you in secret.'
Bahram Gur turned his reins aside and rode far off, out of the army's sight.
The man said, 'King who has seen the world, you must give heed to what I say.'
'In this land I am a farmer and a householder, master of the fields, the soil, the crops, and the home.'
'I was channeling water across my land so my labor would prove its worth.'
'When the water grew abundant it grew bold, and a hole opened up in the middle of a field.'
'A strange roaring reached my ears, so that the place filled me with dread.'
'From that spot came a ringing, echoing sound, and its roar seems to point the way to a treasure.'
When Bahram heard this he rode there and found the whole plain green and watered.
He ordered that laborers with digging tools be brought, however far the road.
The lofty king dismounted from his steed, and they pitched a canopy above the field.
Night came; the warriors lit candles, and everywhere they kindled fires.
When the sun raised its banner from the sea and polished this violet dome of sky,
laborers came from every side and gathered like a mighty army.
They set to digging up the earth completely, until that level place became one great pit.
When the men grew exhausted from digging, something like a mountain rose out of the soil,
a house built of fired brick, plastered with mortar until it seemed a paradise.
The digger struck it with his axe from above, and at a distance the doorway appeared.
When the priest saw it he went in through the door, and with him another trusted man.
They saw a chamber broad and long, its ceiling raised to a great height.
Two buffalo made of gold stood upright, with a golden manger set before them.
Emeralds were poured inside the manger, mingled with red rubies.
The two oxen were hollow inside like a rounded vault, their bellies full of pomegranates, apples, and quinces.
Within the quinces were lustrous pearls, each grain of them like a drop of water.
The oxen had eyes of ruby, and their heads were bowed as if worn with age.
All around them stood lions and wild asses, one with eyes of ruby, another of crystal.
Golden pheasants and peacocks of gold, their breasts and eyes all set with jewels.
When the vizier saw this he went to the king, his noble mind now crowned like the moon.
Gently he said to the king of the world, 'Rise, for treasures beyond counting have appeared.'
'A house of gems has come to light, one whose key was held by the turning heavens.'
The king said to him, 'Look, for whoever loves treasure writes his name upon it.'
'See whose name is on that hoard, and in whose time it was buried.'
When the chief priest heard this he came and saw upon the ox the seal of Jamshid.
He said to the king of the world, 'I have looked; the name of King Jamshid is written on the ox.'
The king said, 'Chief of the priests, wiser in every task than all the sages,
why should I make my own the treasure that Jamshid laid down long ago?
May any wealth that comes to a king by other means than sword and justice never be his.'
'Give all that is here to the deserving, so that no ruin may fall upon us.'
'If we must make a name, let us fill our treasury by justice and the sword.'
'My army needs no share of this; time and the earth are not so narrow for us.'
'Sell these jewels for gold and silver to the widow and the orphaned children.'
'To the empty-handed people of good name, those whose hearts are cut off from fame, rest, and desire,'
'gather them from ruin and from prosperous land, and then count every one of them by name.'
He gave away the gold and coin of the treasure as an offering for the soul of world-ruling Jamshid.
A tenth of it he gave to the one who showed the way, whom the king had sought out from among the army.
'While I am young and sound of body, why should I go hunting Jamshid's treasure?'
'Whoever takes a jewel that was Jamshid's, may he have no hope of good in this world.'
'When I set my body to hardship with my troops, I will bring back name and treasure from Rome and China.'
'I have the horse Shabdiz and a sharp sword; I will not be deceived, and I know no way of flight.'
From there he went to his own treasury, gathered by his own sweat and toil.
He summoned the champions of his realm and gave his army a full year's pay.
He arranged a feast bright as spring and adorned a hall inlaid with jewels.
Ruby wine gleamed in crystal cups, and Bahram Gur grew merry and glad.
He spoke to his companions: 'You proud men, you have heard the story of the throne of greatness.'
'From Hushang down to the famed Nozar, who was a legacy left from Fereydun,'
'and likewise on down to Kay Qobad, who set the crown of Fereydun upon his head,'
'consider what remains of those great ones: who now speaks of them but in blessing?'
'When the turning of their days grew short, only their story stayed as a memory of those lords,'
'that this one had nobility of spirit and that one had none; one is blamed and the other praised.'
'One by one, in turn, we all pass on; it is right that we do not trample the world with evil.'
'Why should we seize the treasure of those who are gone, or set our hearts upon their gold?'
'I will not bind my heart to this fleeting inn; I take no pride in the crown, and I have no need of treasure.'
'When a day passes in joy, why should a wise person eat his heart with grief?'
'If any of these subjects of ours, our farmers or our humble servants,'
'if one lowly man cries out in pain from my oppression, then let my head, my crown, and my treasure be lost.'
There was an old man named Mahyar, whose years had reached a hundred and sixty-four.
When he heard these words he rose to his feet and said, 'You just and upright lord,'
'I have this from the tales of Fereydun and Jamshid and all those famous ones, the great and the small:'
'No king like you has ever sat in this world, nor has anyone heard the like from low or high.'
'In Jamshid's day, when men spoke of it, they called it the treasure of the oxen.'
'It was a treasure scattered through the world, among the lowly and among the great.'
'Had your heart been set on the pearls of the sea, the very jewels would have risen up on the waves to you.'
'No one in the world knew where it lay, whether in the earth or in the jaws of a dragon.'
'When you found it, you did not even look at the treasure, for this fleeting inn brought you only shame.'
'Surely no one has ever seen so many jewels even in the sea.'
'You gave these gems to the poor, the jeweled oxen and all the rest, from end to end.'
'After you are gone, may your name live on; may you flourish and triumph, and may fortune rejoice in you.'
'Many a book of kings would turn black with this tale, and still it would not come to an end.'