English
The King's Message
The king said to him: 'You proud man, you have tasted neither the warmth nor the cold of this world.'
'Go from here to the middle of the army, and ask them for a wise man.'
'Carry a message from me to Kaykhosrow: this world has other customs and other ways.'
'A grandson who makes war on his grandfather has a heart bent on evil and treachery.'
'Was this the will of the world's Creator, that the world should be filled with strife and hatred?'
'Siavash was not killed guiltless; his head was turned by his teachers.'
'If the guilt was mine, what did Piran do, or Ruyin and Lahhak and Farshidvard,'
'that they had to be bound to their saddles, drenched in blood like drunken elephants?'
'If I were to say you are an evil creature, malicious and born of Ahriman's seed,'
'look at your lineage: I am of the same stock, so I would only be reproaching myself.'
'Lay this feud on Godarz and Kavus, who lead the roaring army against me.'
'I do not say this because I fear you, or because I have grown old and changed.'
'All the sands and seas are my army, all of them fierce lions and warriors.'
'Whenever I command, my son, they turn Mount Gang into a sea on the day of battle.'
'But I fear the Creator, and the shedding of blood, and the turns of evil fortune,'
'that so many renowned, innocent heads should be severed from their bodies on this battlefield.'
'If you do not turn away from the war before me, then surely shame will come upon you.'
'If you make a pledge with me under oath, strive not to break my covenant.'
'In this matter I will guide you, so that your treasury and your army remain intact.'
'If you forget the affair of Siavash and cease making merry over Turan,'
'there are the brothers Jahn and the warlike Pashang, who in battle can turn mountains of stone into sea.'
'Every land and region you claim for Iran, I will empty of Turks at your command.'
'All that we have from the treasure of our ancestors, in coin and crown and throne and seat,'
'in horses and arms, in much and little, the inheritance left from our forefather Zadsham,'
'the treasure of the great, the throne and the crown, and whatever an army requires,'
'I will send all of it to you, for your father is himself a champion and my own kin.'
'The two armies will rest from the toil of war, and all our days will turn back to feasting.'
'But if it is Ahriman who twists your soul, driving you toward the shroud,'
'if you desire nothing but battle and bloodshed, and there is no room for my counsel in your mind,'
'then step out from your own army, and perhaps you will get your wish from this affair.'
Let the two of us turn to the field of battle,
so that all these armies can rest from war.
If I am the one killed, the world is yours;
the army becomes your servants, and your own son.
And if you are killed by my hand,
I will harm no one else from your gathering.
Your army will be under my protection;
they are all noblemen, and they are my friends.
But if you will not come to fight me,
if you cannot stand against this seasoned warrior,
then Pashang will come before you with his belt fastened;
once he begins the fight, he will not delay.
The father has grown old, but his champion is young,
a youth who is wise and bright of soul.
He will bring the fight to you on the battlefield;
he is brave, and he fights like a leopard.
Then we shall see which way the heavens turn,
and on whose head the sun will set its crown.
But if you will not seek combat with him,
you mean to handle this matter another way.
Wait, then, and let the army rest tonight,
until the mountain puts on its golden helmet at dawn.
We will pick the fighters from our forces,
proud men with heavy maces.
We will turn the ground into a sea of blood,
and from the corpses of our enemies make a wide plain.
On the second day, at the crowing of the cock,
we will strap the war drums onto the elephants' backs.
We will lead the chiefs out to give aid,
and into the stream we will send both water and blood.
When the enemy will not listen to your message,
when he twists away and puts no faith in these words,
then challenge him alone, man to man,
in sight, but far from the center of the army.
The son blessed his father and rode out,
while the father's eyes filled with tears and his heart with blood.
He chose four men from among the wise priests,
men who had tasted much of the world's heat and cold,
and a thousand of the army's renowned soldiers,
wise men, fit for the day of battle.
On the road the scout saw from afar
the banner and lances of Tur's riders.
Among the Turks, every one who rode in the vanguard
was an untried, inexperienced young man.
On the road they clashed with the scouts,
and for the sake of Shideh they shed blood.
A few of the Iranians were wounded,
and from that side the fighting was pressed on.
At that very moment Shideh arrived there
and saw the Iranian sentries.
Shideh's heart grew troubled in that affair,
and he called his warriors back from the fight.
He said to the Iranians: near the king,
send a rider, as is proper and customary.
Let him say that a bright-hearted man named Shideh
has brought several messages to the king,
from Afrasiab, that commander of China,
father of the mother of the king of Iran.
A rider set off swiftly from the scouts
and hurried at full speed toward the king of Iran.
There is a messenger from the king of Turan's army, high in spirit, carrying a black banner.
He says: 'I am Shideh by name. I need someone to whom I can deliver my message.'
The king's heart filled with shame at those words, and hot tears spilled from his eyes.
He said: 'This Shideh is my uncle, my equal in stature and in courage.'
He looked among the warriors, and found no one there but Qaren of the Kaviani line.
He told him: 'Go to him gladly, give him our greeting, and hear his message.'
When Qaren came out from before the army, he saw that gleaming black banner.
When he reached Shideh, he gave him greetings from the king and, more warmly, from the Iranians.
The young man too opened his sweet tongue, for he was clear of heart and bright of soul.
He said all that he had heard from Afrasiab, of peace and feasting, of war and of haste.
When Qaren heard those elegant words from that renowned, wise, and pure-minded man,
he came to the king of Iran and said: 'These messages were matched with wisdom.'
When Khosrow heard Qaren's words, the old sayings came back to his mind.
Khosrow laughed at his grandfather's scheming, at his search for tricks and cunning devices.
Then he said: 'Afrasiab has come to regret crossing the river.'
'His eyes are dry, his lips full of talk; my own heart is full of ancient griefs.'
'He works to turn my heart aside, to frighten me with the size of his army.'
'When the turning wheel of the high heavens does not spin as it should, the day brings only harm.'
'Now there is no other course for us but that I, my heart full of hatred, go before him.'
'I will meet him on the battlefield in single combat, and when the time to fight comes, I will not delay.'
But all the wise men and nobles of the army cried out with one voice: 'This is not the way.'
'The worldly-wise, learned Afrasiab dreams of nothing but finding some trick.'
'He knows nothing but sorcery and magic, deceit, ill intent, and a wicked nature.'
'Now he has chosen Shideh from his army, seeing in him the key to an evil snare.'
'He wants the king of Iran himself in combat, so as to fill our days with pain.'
'Do not act rashly against his sharp cunning; do not grow weary of Iran and its crown.'
'And if Shideh seeks combat with the king, do not carelessly go to face him in the field.'
'If Shideh should be destroyed by your hand, only one renowned man is lost from that army.'
'But if you, far from here, should perish, a dark cloud of dust would rise from Iran.'
'Not one of us would remain alive, and neither city nor land nor soil of Iran would stand.'
There is no one left of our royal line to gird his belt and take up this feud.
Your grandfather is an old man who has seen the world, honored in Turan and China.
He apologizes for the wrong he did; out of helplessness he wants to avoid battle.
He speaks of the horses and treasures of coin that Tur laid up for the sake of Zadsham,
and the royal throne, the crowns of chiefs, the golden belts, and the heavy maces:
he will hand these over from his own treasury to your treasury, buying himself off from this trouble.
Every city he has taken from Iran's borders he will empty of the Turks.
Let us return to Iran, victorious and glad, and think no more of what has passed.
Old and young agreed to these words, all except the famous warrior Rostam,
for Rostam turned his head away from peace; his heart held a grudge because of Siyavash.
The king kept biting his lip and stared at them, bewildered.
Then he said: This is not the way. Shall we go home to Iran from this battlefield?
What of all our vows and customs, our treasures pledged, our words and counsel?
If Afrasiab is left alive upon the throne, the world will fall to ruin because of him.
How can we face Kavus with any excuse? With what eyes could we ever look at him?
You have heard what Tur did to good Iraj for the sake of crown and throne.
And Siyavash too, though innocent, he killed for the sake of treasure, throne, and crown.
A deceiving Turk from that assembly came strolling up to me.
If he means to avoid battle with me, why have your faces gone so pale?
This astonishes me in you, and it only deepens the old grudge in me.
I never imagined the Iranians would forever let go of this feud.
I saw no one from Iran's army struck down on this battlefield,
so that you would rush away from fighting them at the word of the deceiver Afrasiab.
When the Iranians heard these words from the king, they writhed with shame at their fault,
and offered excuses: We are your servants; it was out of loyalty that we bowed our heads.
The king of kings wants nothing but a good name, and a good end to all his affairs.
The praised lord of high spirit does not want reproach to fall on us,
so that people say there was no rider from Iran who dared test himself in battle against Shideh,
that a rider came to the field of war and none but their king showed such courage.
Khosrow, chief of the wise, wants nothing except that shame should never stain us.
The king answered them like this: You wise counselors who show the way,
Know that on the day of battle this Shideh has no equal to his father on the open field.
His father forged his weapons with sorcery, out of crookedness, deceit, and malice.
Your weapons will not cut through that armor and steel-piercing helmet.
His horse too is descended from the wind: a heart like a lion's, and swift as the wind when it runs.
Whoever God has not granted glory has no strength or wings against his grip.
He will not come out to fight you; his glory and his lineage would find it shameful.
Descendant of Fereydun and son of Qobad, the two warriors were of one heart and one nature.
I will burn his father's dark soul over him, just as he burned Kavus over his own son.
The brave men and lions of the land of Iran all called out their praise to the king.