English
Story 20: The Judge of Hamadan
They tell of the judge of Hamadan, who was infatuated with a young farrier, his heart caught in the fire of the blacksmith's forge. For a long time he pined after him, chasing and watching and searching, and describing his state as it happened:
That tall, slender cypress came into my sight;
he stole my heart from my hands and threw me at his feet.
These bold eyes drag the heart into their snare.
If you don't want to lose your heart to anyone, close your eyes.
I heard that one day the boy came before the judge in a passageway. Some word of this affair had reached his ears, and he was hurt beyond words. He cursed shamelessly, spoke foully, picked up a stone, and left no insult unsaid. The judge said to a respected scholar who was his companion:
Look at that beauty and his flash of anger,
and that frown knotted on his sour yet sweet brow.
In the Arab lands they say: 'A blow from the beloved is a sweet raisin.'
Taking a punch in the mouth from your hand
is sweeter than eating my own bread by my own hand.
Surely from his rudeness the scent of generosity is coming.
Fresh grapes have a sour taste;
wait two or three days and they turn sweet.
He said this and returned to the bench of judgment. A number of upright notables were present in his court. They kissed the ground in service and said: With your permission, we would say a word, though it breaks etiquette, for the elders have said:
It is not right to argue over every remark,
and to point out a fault in the great is itself a fault.
But since the past favors of the master constantly accompany the days of his servants, to see a wise course and not declare it would be a kind of betrayal. The right path is that you not circle this boy in greed, that you fold away the carpet of longing, for the office of judge is a lofty station: do not soil it with a shameful sin. This is the companion you saw, and this is the tale you heard.
Someone who has disgraced himself many times,
what does he care about anyone else's honor?
A good name of fifty years
can be trampled by one ugly name.
The advice of his loyal friends pleased the judge, and he praised the good sense of the group and said: The concern of my dear ones for my welfare is exactly right, and the matter cannot be argued; and yet,
Blame me as much as you like,
for you cannot wash the blackness off a black man.
Nothing can make me forget the thought of you;
I am a snake with a crushed head, I cannot help but writhe.
He said this, then sent people to investigate the boy's situation and poured out boundless wealth; for it is said that whoever has gold on the scale has strength in the arm, and whoever has no access to money has no one in all the world.
Whoever sees gold bows his head,
even if the scale is an iron beam.
In short, one night a private meeting was arranged, and that very night the police chief got word. All night the judge had wine in his head and youth in his arms. From pleasure he could not sleep, and hummed:
Surely this rooster is crowing at the wrong hour tonight;
the lovers have not yet finished with embraces and kisses.
For this one moment that the beloved's watchfulness has fallen asleep, beware:
stay awake, so life does not slip by in regret.
Until you hear the dawn call from the Friday mosque,
or the roar of the drum from the atabeg's palace gate.
Lifting your lips from lips like the eye of a rooster is folly,
taking them away at the rooster's pointless crowing.
The judge was in this state when one of his associates came in and said: Why are you sitting here? Get up and flee while you can, for the envious have found grounds against you, indeed they have spoken a truth. Let us quench with the water of some plan this fire of scandal while it is still small, lest tomorrow it flare up and engulf a whole world. Smiling, the judge looked at him and said:
When the lion has sunk his claws into his prey,
what difference does it make if a dog barks?
Turn your face to the face of the beloved, and let
the enemy gnaw the back of his hand in spite.
That same night the king was also informed: In your realm such an outrage has occurred, what do you command? The king said: I know him among the learned men of the age, unique in his time; perhaps his adversaries have overreached in his case. This talk will not gain my acceptance until it is seen with my own eyes, for the wise have said:
To reach hastily for the sword in a rage
is to end up biting the back of your hand in regret.
I heard that at dawn he came with a few close men to the judge's bedside. He saw the candle standing, the beloved seated, the wine spilled, the cup broken, and the judge asleep in a drunken stupor, oblivious to the world of existence.
Gently, little by little, he woke him: Get up, the sun has risen. The judge grasped what was happening and said: From which side did it rise? He answered: From the east. The judge said: Praise God, the door of repentance is still open, by the tradition that says: 'It is not closed upon the servants until the sun rises from its west. I ask Your forgiveness, O God, and I turn to You in repentance.'
These two things drove me to sin:
an ill-fated destiny and an unfinished mind.
If you punish me, I deserve it;
and if you forgive, pardon is better than revenge.
The king said: Repentance in this state, once you have learned of your ruin, is of no use. 'Their faith did not benefit them once they saw Our might.'
What good is repenting from theft
when you can no longer throw your rope over the palace wall?
Tell the tall man to take his hand off the fruit,
for the short man's hand never reaches the branch anyway.
With such an outrage as has come to light against you, there is no path to escape. He said this, and the guards seized him. The judge said: I have one word left to say in the king's service. The king listened and said: What is it? He said:
If you shake off your sleeve of displeasure at me,
do not expect me to let go of your skirt.
If escape from this sin of mine is impossible,
there is still hope in the mercy you possess.
The king said: You have brought a fine turn of wit and spoken a rare point, but it is against reason and against the law that your eloquence today should free you from the grip of my punishment. I think it best to throw you from the fortress, so that others take the lesson and heed the warning. He said: O king of the world! I am nurtured by the bounty of this house, and this sin is not mine alone; throw down someone else so that I may take the lesson. The king laughed and pardoned his offense, and to those who kept urging him to kill the man he said:
All of you who carry the burden of your own faults,
do not sneer at the faults of others.