English
Part 14
When the king heard the message brought from Jahn, he looked at him and laughed.
In reply he said: Warrior, I have heard every word of this speech from start to finish.
First, you offered me your blessing: may my throne and crown and royal seal endure.
The greeting you conveyed from Afrasiab, and how you said his eyes were filled with tears,
I have heard it. May the same blessing rest on my crown and throne; may I never be anything but glad and victorious.
Second, you said you give thanks to God that you behold a son who knows his Maker,
brighter in heart than all the kings of the world, more admired and more triumphant.
God gave me everything you named; may wisdom be joined to all these gifts.
However smooth your words may be, at heart you are neither pure nor a worshiper of God.
One who is rich in knowledge shows it better in deeds than in speech.
Blessed Fereydun did not become a star, nor did he rise above the dark earth.
You say to me: I shall climb to the heavens, and in this way you have washed all shame from your face.
Sorcery has become the stock of your heart, and words a mere ornament on your tongue.
A tongue full of talk and a heart full of lies cast no light before a wise man.
Do not call the murderer of a father the king of the world, now that not even Siavash's bones remain.
You also dragged my mother from behind her curtain onto the road, and turned into such a vengeful enemy.
While I was still unborn in my mother's womb, you were already kindling fire over my head.
Everyone at your court cursed your wicked, misguided life,
saying that never in this world had anyone, king or hero or true man, done such evil:
to drag a woman through the assembly and hand greatness over to killers of men.
The one who wields the whip strikes so that a daughter miscarries her child.
Wise Piran came to that place and saw what he had never seen or heard before.
It was God's decree that I would rise proud and honored in every gathering.
He turned your harm and calamity away from me, for fate held a secret with me.
After I was parted from my mother, just as a helpless infant would be,
you sent me off to shepherds, throwing me to be fattened prey for wild lions.
My nurse and my keeper were shepherds; I had no peace by day and no sleep by night.
So it was until my days had passed, and then Piran brought me in from the wilderness.
He brought me before you, and you looked and saw that I was worthy of the throne and crown.
You would cut my head from my body, as you did to Siavash, and leave the body without a shroud.
But pure God tied my tongue, and I stayed bewildered in my seat.
You found me heartless and witless, and did not rush headlong into your evil deed.
Look at Siavash: what he did in his honesty, and what he suffered from evil and treachery.
He came from across the world and chose you, as befitted the way of the renowned.
For your sake he set custom and throne in order; he came from afar and called you king.
He kept faith and left that assembly so no one could call him a breaker of oaths.
When you saw his frame and stature, his greatness, his courage, and his ways,
that evil nature stirred in you, and you struck that pure heart down.
You cut off that honored royal head as one cuts the head of a sheep.
From the days of Manuchehr until now, you have been nothing but vile of body and ill of mind.
The ruin began with Tur, when he stained his hands with his own father's kin.
And so it passes down, son after son: no path of greatness, no rule of faith.
You struck off the neck of famous Nozar, a father, a king, of royal seed.
Your own good-natured brother Aghriras, who longed only for a good name,
you killed him. As long as you have lived you have been vile; you are not of Adam's seed but of Ahriman's.
If anyone tried to count your evils, they would outnumber the turnings of time.
You have sent whole nurseries of victims to hell; do not claim you were born of humankind.
Next, you said that the foul demon dragged my heart and mind toward wickedness.
Zahhak said the same, and so did Jamshid, when their hearts despaired of goodness:
that Iblis led our hearts astray and cut our hands short of every good deed.
But their evil fate did not turn from them, born of a wicked nature and a corrupt teacher's words.
Whoever turns his face from honesty and chooses crookedness and treachery,
consider too the battle of Pashan, all the troops Piran slaughtered on the field.
The ground turned to mud with the blood of Gudarz's clan; you seek nothing but suffering and the road to ruin.
Now you have come with a hundred thousand Turkish riders, marching for war.
You led your army to the Oxus for battle, and from among them Pashang came against me.
You sent him to cut off my head, so that afterward you might lay waste my realm.
But God, the ruler of the world, became my friend, and the fortune of my enemy was cast down.
Now you tell me that you are glad of my throne and delighted by my good fortune.
See how far my belief in that can go, when I recall your deeds.
From now on I have no words for you but the sharp sword, until the day of resurrection.
I will strive with the strength of treasure and army, with good fortune and the turning of sun and moon.
I will stand in service before God, and seek no guide in this world but Him.
So that the world may be cleansed of the wicked, I gird myself with justice and generosity.
I will root the evil-minded out of the world, and strip the crown from every wicked head.
Tell my grandsire everything I have said: in war, do not keep seeking so many excuses.