English
Kayd's Dream Explained
When Mehran heard Kayd's words, he told him: do not let this dream trouble your heart.
Your high name will not be diminished, nor will harm come to this kingdom.
Alexander will bring a heavy army, choice leaders from Rome and Iran.
If you want to keep your honor, make wisdom your ally and do not seek battle with him.
You have four things such that no one in the world, neither low nor high, has ever seen their like.
First, your daughter, lovely as highest paradise, whose beauty lights your crown across the earth.
Second, a philosopher you keep close, who will tell you all the secrets of the world.
Third, a physician who is precious, whose knowledge has made his name renowned.
Fourth, a cup: pour water in it and neither fire nor sun can lessen it.
Its water never grows less no matter how much you drink; with these things, set your honor right.
When he comes, be like this and do not plan war, if you want him not to linger here.
You are no match for his army, nor for his cunning, his treasure, or his crown.
Now that we have set a fortunate plan for your affair, let us also answer the dream itself.
You saw a house with a narrow hole through which an elephant passed out at once.
Know that house to be like the world, and that elephant to be an ungrateful king,
one who is unjust and crooked of tongue, who has nothing of kingship but the name.
After this a certain king will come, so weak, so useless, so unrighteous,
base of heart, feeble of body, and his soul darkened with greed.
How could his subjects ever be glad? The king's heart is full of grief and his lips full of empty wind.
Next, what you saw of fine linen cloth, gripped by four clean, sound heads,
the fine linen did not tear from their pulling, nor did those who pulled it grow weary.
After this a famous man will come from the plain of lance-wielding horsemen,
a pure, good-natured man, and through him God's faith will spread to all four quarters.
One will be an old Zoroastrian priest who takes the sacred barsom twigs in hand and murmurs prayers.
Another, the faith of Moses that you call Jewish, which says nothing but itself is worthy of praise.
Another, the Greek faith of that righteous one, who brings justice into the king's heart.
The fourth, this same pure-minded one comes and raises up the wise from their place.
In this way the four of them, for protection's sake, pulled at that linen cloth.
Know the linen to be God's faith, and the four pullers came to guard it.
This one drags it that way, that one this way, and then they become enemies over religion.
Next, the thirsty man who fled from sweet water while the fish drew that water toward him.
A time will come when the pure man is despised once he has drunk the water of knowledge.
He becomes like a fish diving to the sea, while the ill-natured rise to the stars.
He keeps calling the thirsty to the water, yet no one answers him about his knowledge.
They flee from that seeker of knowledge, and the pack of them opens their lips to slander him.
Fifth, what you saw: a city with a workshop built inside it,
full of eating and dealing, buying and selling, as if time had sewn shut their eyes.
From blindness one could not see another; this one ignored that, that one ignored this.
A time will come when things turn such that the wise become servants of the ignorant.
In their eyes the learned man is worthless; the tree of wisdom bears no fruit for them.
They become praisers of the ignorant man, offering their worship before him as if before God.
The one who lies knows well that his flattery gains no light from such worship.
Sixth, what you saw: a horse with two heads, and food had no way to pass into it.
A time will come when people grow glad with possessions yet never find contentment.
No poor man gains a share from him, no seeker of knowledge, no man of renown.
They want no one but themselves and come to no one's aid.
Seventh, the three jars you saw full of water, one of them empty to the brim,
two always brimful of water, and the middle one dry and yielding nothing.
After this a time will come when the poor grow so weak and despised
that even if spring clouds fill with water, the sun will hide itself from the poor.
The clouds will pour no rain on him, and the poor man's heart will be wounded by it.
The rich give to one another, each smooth and sweet-tongued with the other.
The poor man's lips stay dry, and he drags his day through into the night.
Next, the cow so sound of body that sought milk from its own scrawny calf.
When Saturn enters the sign of Libra, the world falls under the power of brute strength.
The affairs of the sick and the poor grow feeble, and the healthy man demands goods from them.
He never opens the mouth of his own treasure, nor does he ward off his own body's hardship with it.
Next, the spring you saw dry of water, with waters sweet as musk all around it,
no clear water gushed up from it, nor did those surrounding waters hurry to fill it.
After this there will come a time when there is a ruler in the world
who has no knowledge about him, and his dark soul is full of grief.
Every hour he raises a new army, from which a famous leader is made.
In the end neither army nor king remains, and a new figure of fresh custom comes to the fore.
Now this present time is the age of Alexander, whose crown sits upon the brow of the great.
When he comes, give him these four things, and I believe he will ask for nothing more.
Keep him satisfied and he will pass on, for he seeks knowledge and possesses wisdom.
When Kayd heard these words from Mehran, his old days were made fresh again.
He came and kissed Mehran's head and eyes, then, comforted and victorious, returned rejoicing.
When the king turned back from the wise man, the sages set out on the road with him.