English
Bijan Cast into the Pit
God took pity on his youth and broke apart the doubt that hung over him.
The workman was still digging up the tree's roots when, by fate, Piran appeared in the distance.
When Piran son of Viseh reached that place, he saw the whole road lined with soldiers, belts tightened for battle.
A tall gallows had been raised, and a noose was fastened to it like a fetter.
He asked the Turks, 'What is this gallows for? Who is the man the king wants to hang?'
Garsivaz told him, 'This is Bijan, the enemy the king has brought from Iran.'
He spurred his horse and came to Bijan, and found him with a wounded heart and a stripped body.
His hands were bound behind his back tight as stone, his mouth dry, all color gone from his face.
He asked, 'How did you come here? You must have come to Iran's enemy seeking blood.'
Bijan told him the whole story, how his own bad luck had joined him to disaster.
Piran son of Viseh took pity on him, and tears rolled down his face from his lashes.
He ordered them to hold the hanging for a while; they did not proceed, and he said, 'Keep him right here.'
'So that I may see the king's face and show him the path of good fortune.'
He entered the palace like a humble servant, standing before the king with hands folded in respect.
He came hurrying up to the throne and offered Afrasiab deep and earnest praise.
He remained standing before the throne, like a pure and guiding counselor.
The commander understood that noble Piran was standing there because he wanted something.
He smiled and said, 'Tell me what you want; you hold great honor in my eyes.'
'Whether you want gold or jewels, or the rule of any land,'
'I will not begrudge you my treasure. Why do you choose to trouble yourself?'
When Piran, devoted to his king, heard this, he kissed the ground and sprang to his feet.
'May your fortune and your place endure forever; may your throne never stand empty.'
'Among the kings of the world, praise belongs to you; your splendor rises higher than the sun.'
'Whatever I need I already have through your fortune, in men, in treasure, and in strength of hand.'
'This request of mine is not for my own gain; none of your servants is a beggar.'
'Let the high-minded King of Kings, praised and blameless in all he does, know'
'that many times before I have given the king advice on several matters,'
'yet nothing came of my counsel; I withheld my hand from those affairs.'
'I told you: do not kill the son of Kavus, or you will make enemies of Rostam and Tus,'
'for they will crush us with elephants from Iran and tear our bonds apart.'
'Siyavash, who was of the royal line of the Kayanids, had girded his belt to serve you,'
'yet you killed Siyavash for nothing, mixing poison into the honey.'
'You saw the evils the Iranians did, what they did to the land of the Turanians.'
'Two thirds of the Turks were trampled under horses' hooves, and our fortune turned to bitter water.'
'Even now the blade of Zal son of Sam has surely not yet rested in its sheath,'
'for Rostam still lets heads roll from it and drips their blood upon the sun.'
'Yet in this calm you go on seeking vengeance; foolishly you keep smelling a flower of poison.'
'If you spill Bijan's blood on top of all this, that same dust of vengeance will rise against Turan.'
'You are a wise king and we your servants; open the eye of reason and look.'
'Consider the vengeance you have already spread: what fruit did you gain from the King of Iran?'
'Yet you are inviting the same again, bringing the tree of ruin to fruit.'
'If the feud grows twofold, we cannot hold our ground, O champion, lord of the world.'
'No one knows Giv better than you, nor Rostam the brave, that crocodile of disaster.'
'And Gudarz son of Keshvad with his steel grip, who will come to war for his grandson.'
When he poured this cool water on that blazing fire, Afrasiab answered him thus:
'Do you not see what Bijan did to me? Before Iran and Turan my face has turned yellow with shame.'
'Do you not see what disgrace this shameless man has brought upon my old age through my daughter?'
'He tore the good name of my veiled women from behind their curtain and spread it before everyone.'
'For this disgrace my whole realm and army will laugh at me forever.'
'If he escapes from me with his life, tongues will wag against me on every side.'
'I will be left in disgrace and grief, weeping pale tears from my eyes.'
Again Piran praised him and said, 'O king of good fortune, speaker of truth,'
'it is just as the king says; he seeks nothing but a good name.'
'But let my sober-minded lord look deeply into this thought of mine:'
'Let him bind Bijan in heavy chains instead of choosing the gallows and death for him.'
'Whoever remains bound in your prison, no one will read his name from the records of the demons of state.'
'The Iranians will take warning from him and will not gird themselves for evil after this.'
The commander did as counsel advised, and found his heart in agreement with the king's word.
Through the pure and guiding counselor, the king grows radiant upon his throne.
Then the king ordered Garsivaz to prepare heavy fetters and a dark pit.
'Chain both his hands, put a collar on his neck, a Roman shackle laid on like a heavy weight.'
'Have the blacksmiths rivet him with iron nails, and bind him within it from head to foot.'
'When you have bound him, cast him head first into the pit, so he is cut off from the sun and moon.'
'Bring that boulder of Akvan the demon, the one the lord of the deep world's sea'
'flung into the thickets of China. Fetch it, and take vengeance on Bijan with it.'
'Haul that stone with a team of elephants, the one that can cover the mouth of the Arzhang pit.'
'Bring it and seal the mouth of his pit, so that his soul may leave him in misery.'
'And from there go to the mansion of that shameless one, Manijeh, who brings disgrace upon her noble birth.'
'Go with your horsemen and plunder it; strip that ill-starred girl of crown and standing.'
'Tell her: O accursed, wretched creature, the crown and throne no longer suit you.'
'With disgrace you have lowered my head before the Kayanids; you have thrown my crown into the dust.'
'Drag her naked to the pit, so she may see in the pit the one she once saw on the throne.'
'You are his spring, you are his comforter; in this cramped prison you are his visitor.'
Garsivaz strode out from his presence and carried out the will of that malicious man.
They dragged Bijan son of Giv away from the gallows and brought him, bound, to that pit.
They bound him in iron from head to foot: his chest, his arms, his neck, his legs, his hands.
With the blacksmiths' steel hammers they drove in heavy rivets.
They cast him head first into the pit and fastened a seal over its mouth.
From there Garsivaz led his troops to the mansion of that daughter.
He gave all the treasure and jewels to plunder; he took from one purse and gave to another.
Manijeh, in a single wrap and nothing more, her feet bare and her head uncovered,
he dragged running to that pit, her eyes full of blood, her cheeks like a flowing stream.
He said to her, 'Here is your home and household; you are the visitor of this bound man forever.'
She went wailing round and round the plain, until a day and a night had passed over her.
Crying out, she came to the mouth of the pit and pushed one hand down into it.
When the sun raised its head over the mountain, Manijeh went door to door gathering bread.
All through the long day she collected it and brought it to the hole of the pit.
She handed it down to Bijan and wept; on that wretched fortune she lived on.