Complete. Translation of Sir William Jones.
THERE was a king who oppressed his subjects: in his fondness of false evidence he had the manners of Hejjaj (a tyrant of Basrah).
Whatever in the nighttime was born (or conceived) from the morning was repeated in his palace at early dawn.
One morning a person went to the king, more apt to disclose secrets than the orb of the moon,
Who from the moon acquired nightly stratagems, and from the dawn learned the art of an informer.
He said: “A certain old man in private has called thee a disturber, and a tyrant, and bloodthirsty.”
The king was enraged by this speech: he said, “Even now I put him to death.”
He spread a cloth, and scattered sand on it: (to catch the blood) the devil himself fled from his madness.
A youth went, like the wind, to the face of the old man: he said, “The king is ill disposed towards thee.
“Before this evil-minded tyrant has pronounced thy doom, arise, go to him, that thou mayst bring him to his right state of mind.”
The sage performed his ablution; took his shroud; went before the king, and took up his discourse.
The dark-minded monarch clapped his hands together; and, from a desire of revenge, his eye was bent back towards the heel of his foot.
He said, “I have heard that thou hast given loose to thy speech; thou hast called me revengeful and mad-headed.
“Art thou apprised of my monarchy like that of Soliman? Dost thou call me in this manner an oppressive demon?”
The old man said to him, “I have not been sleeping: I have said worse of thee than what thou repeatest.
“Old and young are in peril from thy act; town and village are injured by thy ministry.
“I, who am thus enumerating thy faults, am holding a mirror to thee both for bad and good.
“When the mirror shows thy blemishes truly, break thyself: it is a crime to break the mirror.
“See my truth, and apply thy understanding to me; and if it be not so, kill me on a gibbet.”
When the sage made a confession with truth, the veracity of the old man had an effect on him.
When the king saw that veracity of his before him, he perceived his rectitude, his own crookedness.
He said, “Take away his spices and his shroud; bring in my sweet odors, and robe of honor.”
He went back from the height of injustice; he became a just prince, cherishing his subjects.
No virtuous man has kept his truth concealed; for a true speech no man has been injured.
Bring truth (rasti) forward, that thou mayst be saved (rastigar). Truth from thee is victory from the Creator.
Though true words were all pearls, yet they would be harsh, very harsh, for “truth is bitter.”
