A literary history of Persia

YAZfD 22$It was still worse when, on the death of Mu'awiya (April,A.D. 680), Yazid came to the throne. No name is moreY D '*6&>is3)execrated throughout Islim, but most of all inPersia, than his. A Persian who will remainunmoved by such epithets as "liar," "scoundrel,"or "robber," will fly into a passion if you call him Yazid,Shimr, or Ibn Ziydd. A Persian poet, who hadHis very name, i_ i j r JJ- L-execrated by the been rebuked for adding a curse to his" name,retorted, If God can pardon Yazid, then Hewill very surely pardon us for cursing him "!Hdfidjj has beenseverely censured because the first ode in his dlwan begins withthe second hemistich of the following verse from the poems ofthis impious Caliph :Ana'l-tnasmuntu ma 'indi bi-lirydq*'" wa Id rdqi ;Adir ka'sf* wa nawil-hd, aldyd ayyuha's-sdqiI"I, drugged with poison, have neither antidote nor guardingcharm ;"Pass the cup and give it me to drink, O cupbearer!Ahli of Shiraz, seeking to apologise for " the Tongueot theUnseen " (Lisdnul-Ghayb\ as the admirers of Hdfidh call him,says :"One night I saw Master Hafidh in a dream;I said, 'O thou who art peerless in excellence and learning,Wherefore didst thou take to thyself this verse of Yazid,Notwithstandingall this virtue and eminence?'He answered, 'Thou understandest not this matter;The infidel's goods are lawful spoil to the true believer ' "!But even this excuse would not pass. Kitibf or Nfehdpurreplies :"Greatly do I marvel at Master Hafidh,So that thereby understanding is reduced to helplessness.What virtue did he perceive in Yazid's verseThat in his diwdn he first sings of him ?16