English
Rostam Recounts His Deeds
When Esfandiar heard this from Rostam, he laughed, and joy swelled in his heart.
He said to him: I have heard of all your labor and your deeds, all your pain and your grief.
Now hear the things that I myself have done, how I have brought low the necks of the proud.
First I girded myself for the faith, and cleared the land of idol worshippers.
No warrior in all the world has seen so many enemies vanish beneath the dust as those I slew.
My lineage comes from the seed of Goshtasp, and Goshtasp himself sprang from Lohrasp.
Lohrasp was the son of King Arvand, who held crown and throne among the great.
Arvand himself came from the line of Kay Pashin, whom his own father blessed.
Pashin was of the seed of Kay Qobad, a wise king whose heart was full of justice.
Trace it back this way to King Fereydun, who was king of the world and worthy of the throne.
My mother too is a Caesar's daughter, she who is the crown upon the heads of the Romans.
That Caesar's descent runs back to Salm, from Fereydun's seed, glorious and just.
Salm was the son of the mighty Fereydun, who carried the name of kingship among rulers.
I will speak, and none can say it is false, for the crooked ways are many and the true path few.
You are one who, before my forefathers, before my great, watchful, and pure ancestors,
served alongside my grandfather; I seek no magic trick to prove this.
You gained your greatness from my kings, when you rushed eagerly into their service.
I will tell you everything as it is; if one word is a lie, then hold up your hand and object.
Ever since the throne was given to King Goshtasp, I have kept my belt tight with manhood and good fortune.
Whoever went to China for the sake of the faith, afterward everyone praised him for it.
After Gorazm's slander turned things against us, my father chained me and cast me from the feast.
Because of my imprisonment, harm reached Lohrasp; the whole earth vanished under the Turks.
Jamasp brought the blacksmiths to free us from our heavy chains.
But the smiths' work was slow, and my heart was set on the clang of the sword.
My patience broke, I shouted at them, and tore my body free from the smiths' hands.
I raised my head up from where I sat and snapped the shackles and fetters apart with my bare hands.
Arjasp fled before me, though he commanded so famous an army.
With courage I bound the belt at my waist and went after him like a raging lion.
You have heard what came upon me in the Seven Trials, from lions and from the demon.
By a clever ruse I entered the Brazen Fortress, and turned a whole world upside down within it.
I took full revenge for the Iranians, and girded myself to avenge the blood of the great.
What I did in Turan and China, and the toil and hardship I endured there,
surely no wild ass ever saw such things from a leopard, nor any crocodile from a fisherman's net.
Since the days of Tur and mighty Fereydun, no one in the world had spoken the name of that fortress.
There was a dark stronghold on a mountaintop, so high it stood far from any crowd.
When I went there, they were all idol worshippers, dazed and reeling like drunkards.
With my own courage I seized that fortress and dashed all their idols to the ground.
I raised up the fire of Zoroaster, which he had brought in a censer from paradise.
By the victory granted by the one just God, I returned to Iran again
so that no enemy was left for us anywhere, and no brahmin remained in the idol temples.
I fought that battle alone, with my own body, and no one shared the burden of my struggle.
Now our words have grown long between us; if you are thirsty, raise up the cup of wine.