English
Part 11: The Murder of Yazdgerd
When Mahoy looked around the gathering, he realized this could only be Yazdgerd.
He said to his men: Hurry, out of this assembly, cut his head from his body right now.
Or else I will strike off your own heads, and leave no one alive from your line.
The nobles heard these words from him, the wise elders and the brave warriors.
The whole assembly filled with rage at him, tongues full of protest and eyes full of tears.
There was a priest whose name was Radvi, a man who reined in both his life and his reason.
He said to Mahoy: You wicked-minded man, why has the demon darkened your sight?
Understand this: kingship and prophethood are two jewels set in a single ring.
If you break one of these two, you throw both soul and reason underfoot.
Watch what you say, and hold back from this; do not turn faithless toward the Creator of the world.
The first harm will fall on you from it; you are like a field left to your own child.
Its fruit will be bitterness and its leaves blood; soon you will see your own head brought low.
Through you God's faith will be ruined, and crown and throne will curse you.
Your ugliness will be laid bare before the world; your son will surely perish, cut down.
There was a devout man, a worshipper of God, who never once set his hand to evil.
His name was Hormozd Kherrad, and in this faith he found his peace.
He said to Mahoy: You tyrannical man, do not turn away like this from the path of pure God.
I see your heart and your mind grown dark; I see thorns held in your embrace.
Strong of body but empty of brain and weak of soul, you keep begging smoke from a fire.
I see greed will bring you the world's reproach: eager to turn away from it, yet melting in torment.
Your life now will be wretched, and when you die, your seat will be in the fire.
He sat down, and Shahrvi rose to his feet and said to Mahoy: Why this insolence?
You have come to make war on the king of kings, and to side with the khan and the emperor of China.
Many have found members of this royal line helpless, yet never rushed to kill them.
If you are a servant, do not spill the blood of kings, for it will curse you until Judgment Day.
He said this and sat down weeping in grief, his heart full of blood and his lashes wet with pale tears.
When he had sat down weeping, Mehrnush stood, full of grief, with wailing and outcry.
He said to Mahoy: You wicked, base-born man, you know neither the wisdom of consequence nor justice.
Even the crocodile shrinks from royal blood; the leopard, seeing them slain, will not tear them.
You, worse than a beast in nature and temper, now you crave the king's very throne.
When Jamshid was killed at Zahhak's hand, how many turns of the sky passed over his ruin.
When Zahhak seized the face of the earth, then Abtin appeared in the world.
Feraydun of blessed lineage was born, and the world took on another shape.
You have heard what the tyrant Zahhak brought upon his own head in the end.
Perhaps a thousand years passed over him, and at last his reckoning came for him.
And another: Tur, that proud man, whom greed for Iran drove to trouble.
He killed pure-hearted Iraj; and for that the wheel of heaven turned harsh against him.
Manuchehr appeared from that same lineage, and became the very key to that evil bond.
Third: Siyavash of the royal seed, who girded himself for war against his own wish.
At Garsivaz's words, Afrasiyab stripped shame and honor from his soul and mind.
The world-ruler Kay Khosrow came from his loins and filled the world with talk of him.
He cut his own grandfather in two with his dagger and filled the heads of the vengeful with dread.
The fourth tale is the vengeance for Arjasp, who was the spiller of Lohrasp's blood.
When Esfandiyar came into that war, vengeance gave him not a moment's delay.
The fifth is the vengeance for King Hormozd, when Parviz's power grew strong.
To Bandvi and Gostahm he did what he did; this turning wheel never rests from raising dust.
When his hand was free, he took their lives; the door of vengeance cannot be treated lightly.
Soon this day will come back to your memory, and you will writhe over your worthless scheme.
Whatever you sow here, your son will reap; time does not sleep even for an hour.
Keep away from this adorned treasure, from this ill-omened crown and these riches.
You turn your head to the demon's command, and cut off the path of the world's Lord.
Over a thing that does not befit you, do you not see the demon is deceiving you?
Do not burn the sapling of your heart in the fire; do not darken this world-lighting crown.
Gather the scattered army together, and do not twist your words the way you have been saying.
Go from here to the king in penitence; when you see him, offer your service anew.
And from there prepare your troops for the fight; do not rest at all from strategy and apology.
For you will lose both this world and the next if you will not heed the words of the wise.
For a task you should do today, if it slips to tomorrow, they will raise dust over your ruin.
You count King Yazdgerd, the king of kings, as worse than a hostile, evil Turk,
a lion in battle upon the royal throne, shining like the radiant moon.
A keepsake of the Sasanians, whose equal will never gird his waist for war.
Father after father, a giver and a lover of knowledge, from Nushinravan the king back to Ardeshir.
Ardeshir was his eighth ancestor, and world-ruling Sasan with his justice and glory.
God set the crown of kings upon his head; all his royal forebears were of blessed line.
There have been many governors in this land like you, yet no one ever formed such a plan.
Take Bahram Chubina: three hundred thousand rein-holding, armored horsemen
turned their backs at a single arrow of his and abandoned the field of battle to him.
When his head grew glutted with royal ambition, the head of his bright fortune was turned down.
Faraayin, who sought the throne of greatness, was not worthy to wash the hand of evil.
In such a way he was killed, wretched and disgraced. Give up this idle scheme of the times.
Fear God, the Creator of the world, who made the throne, the crown, and the signet.
Do not rashly disgrace yourself, for these words will soon bring your own end.
Anyone who does not speak truthfully to you, know that he is the enemy of your life.
You are the sick one now, and we are like physicians, physicians crying out with tears of blood.
You are less than the servant of servants; do not scheme in your heart to be a lord.
You bear a grudge against pure God, and seek the throne of greatness off the road of reason.
The shepherd's son had a heart full of the throne; the priests' counsel weighed hard on him.
So it has always been, and this is nothing new: the work of the age keeps to no measure.
It raises one man to the high wheel of heaven, and makes another wretched, downcast, and broken.
It has neither ties to the one nor a grudge against the other; who has ever known the Creator's secret?
All the priests, until the world turned black and the moon took the sun's place in the sky,
spoke in this manner with the vengeful man, but not a hair's worth of it reached him.
When the dark night came, he said to the priests: You wise men must now depart.
Tonight I will discuss this matter with my son, and gather up wisdom of every kind.
We will summon twenty of the learned from the army, so that no one need weep over this.
The learned men left his presence, and one priest came from among his own troops.
When Mahoy sat down with the honest men, he said: What do you see in this affair?
If Yazdgerd stays alive, armies will gather to him from every side.
This secret of mine has been laid bare to the world; high and low have all heard it.
His evil will bring my own life to its end; neither my body nor my land and estate will survive.
The wise man answered him thus: This is exactly what you should not have done in the first place.
If the king of Iran becomes your enemy, harm will surely reach your body from him.
And if you spill his blood with your hand, then his avenger in the world is God himself.
Left and right there is only pain, sorrow, and grief; look now to what you must do.
The son said: O father of blessed judgment, once you make him an enemy, clear the ground of him.
Otherwise armies will come to him from China after China, and the face of the earth will grow narrow for us.
Do not think this a small matter; now that you have gained the upper hand, carry out the wish of brave men.
If they raise a banner from the fringe of his cause, they will uproot you and your army from your very base.