English
Mardas the Arab and His Wicked Son Zahhak
In those far days there lived a man
from the plains of lance-bearing riders.
A noble figure, both a king and a good man,
who trembled cold with fear before the Lord of the world.
His name was Mardas, a man of great worth,
unmatched in justice and generosity.
Of milk-giving livestock he had
a thousand of every kind, ready at hand.
Milk cows, obedient to his command,
and choice, spirited Arabian horses.
Goats and sheep rich in milk as well;
this pure-souled man handed them to the milkmaids.
Whoever was in need of milk
could reach out and take from his wealth.
This pure-hearted man had a son
who had not the smallest share of tenderness.
This world-seeker was named Zahhak,
bold, reckless, and impure.
They called him Bivarasp;
such was the name they gave him in the Pahlavi tongue.
For in the reckoning of the mighty, 'bivar'
means ten thousand in the Dari speech.
He owned ten thousand Arabian horses with golden bridles,
and for that he was named Bivar.
Day and night he kept most of them saddled,
out of grandeur, not out of malice.
It happened that one day at dawn Iblis
came to him disguised as a well-wisher.
He led the young lord's heart astray from the path of good;
the youth lent his ear to his talk.
He told him: first I want your oath,
then I will open up the whole matter clearly.
The good-natured youth obeyed him
and swore the oath just as he was told.
That I will never tell your secret to anyone,
and will listen to every word you speak.
He said: with you here, why should another
be master in this house alongside you?
Why keep a father when the son is one like you?
You must hear a piece of advice from me.
This aged lord lingers on in the world too long,
while you are left to wander in the wings.
Seize his rank and his wealth;
his throne in the world befits you.
If you keep faith with what I say,
you will be a king who rules the world.
When Zahhak heard this, he pondered,
and his heart filled with pain at the thought of his father's blood.
He told Iblis: this is not right;
speak of something else, for this is out of the question.
Iblis said: if you turn away from these words,
if you break your oath and pledge to me,
the broken oath and its bond will hang round your neck;
you will be disgraced, and your father will keep his glory.
So he snared the Arab's mind in his trap,
and it came to pass that Zahhak chose to obey him.
He asked: tell me the way to do this;
I will not turn my face from your counsel at all.
Iblis said: I will contrive it for you;
I will lift your head as high as the sun.
Within that king's palace grounds
there was a garden, delightful to the heart.
The noble man would rise before dawn
and prepare himself for worship.
He would wash his head and body in a secluded spot in the garden;
a servant carried a lamp before him.
The perverse Iblis laid his trap:
he dug a deep pit along the path.
Then the wicked Iblis covered that deep pit
with brushwood and smoothed over the way.
The Arabs' chief, that renowned lord,
when night came turned his steps toward the garden.
He fell into the pit and was shattered;
that good-hearted, God-worshipping man was gone.
In all things, good or bad, that noble king
had never spoken a cold word to his son.
He had raised him in comfort and with toil,
found joy in him, and gave him his treasure.
Yet such was that ill-natured, shameless son
that he strayed from the path of justice and kinship.
He agreed to his own father's murder;
I heard this tale from a wise man.
That even if a bad son becomes a roaring lion,
he would not have the heart to shed his father's blood.
Unless there is some hidden matter within;
the seeker must ask the mother for the secret.
The base and tyrannical Zahhak,
by this trick, took his father's place.
He set the crown of the Arabs on his head
and dealt out gain and loss among them.