In my cottage was I one day

Yuāsuf Yahuādīā

1749

Preface

In my cottage was I one day merrily
Despite the Fortune full of treachery.
“What are you doing?” Providence asked me.
“Why are you obsessed only with this life?
You must also know of the Afterworld
Leave a sign of yourself in this world.”
When I heard that response, I snapped out
Alone and with a heavy heart, I went out.
There was a scribe those days, Shlomo named.
To him I said, “You’re both my companion and friend.
Writing a biography is what I intend.
My broken heart this way I may mend.”
He said unto me, “If you are able, commence
Otherwise, it is better to keep silence.”
I cried out to the Lord when this I heard,
“Please O Lord come to my aid,” I said.
“O Pure Creator! I am but a cipher, indeed
But in my enterprise, O Lord, give me speed.”
The wise old man said in the square,
“Ride the horse of comprehension on spur.
Only with friends of knowledge
Can you express art as a sage?
Not everybody can do it
Rely on God and do it.”
This answer he gave me and to my heart
I said, “Listen you wounded heart.
Rely if you must, rely on the Name of God (Allah)
Assistance if you need, seek it from the only God.
Do not lose your hope, Yuāsuf, in the Lord of the Skies
He is the one who will smooth the path in your enterprise.
Unto God on his Throne, supplicate,
Beg the Lord to extend you His aid.”

Antiochus’ Life

My subject now that I intend to commence
Is in His kindness, if the All-Powerful gives me assistance.
It is on Antiochus
That my story will now focus.
A brave tyrant was that king
With an army beyond counting.
To India he marched his army immediately
He conquered it and then returned triumphantly.
He marched countless armies to Rome,
Vanquished it and returned joyfully home.
After many cities he had subdued,
Towards his own city then he moved.
He sat on the throne of kingdom joyfully,
Lived day and night with no sorrow and gleefully.
Taxes were paid to him and tribute
And all rulers of the world did contribute.
Bagris was his prime minister
A brave and very dexterous vizier.
Then there was Nicanor, the army commander
Of whom was proud that pagan emperor.
There were many other great men,
Brave and courageous pagans among them.
But those two men were the greatest of all
With whom the pagan king was pleased withal.
First Nicanor, whom he would dispatch where he intended
But not alone, with an enormous army was he attended.
If the city did he quickly conquer
Elated would become that emperor.
He would send off Bagris after him otherwise
And an army would he quickly mobilize.
If the country took too long to surrender
With blade and sword they would everyone murder.
They took the younger ones captive from there,
They had no mercy on the young nor those with white hair.
Occasionally he roamed around and tyrannized,
Or else in his own city he stayed and lingered other times.
Sometimes he drank a cup of wine in a banquet,
Or listened to music and with a girl did he coquet.

Translated by
Jaimee
Comstock-Skipp
and
Mohsen
Qassemi H.

Credits

Yūsuf Yahūdī, “In my cottage was I one day (Judeo-Persian)” (Poem, Bukhara, 1749). Published in: Muntakhab-i Ashʻār-i Fārsī Az Ā̲sār-i Yahūdīyān-i Īrān (An Anthology of Persian Poetry of the Jews of Iran), ed. Amnon Netzer (Teheran: Publication of Farhang-e Iran Zamin, 1973), excerpts.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

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