from Vol. #7, Issue 1: Spring 2016
translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith

Yúsuf’s Dream
from Yúsuf and Zulaikha by Jámí

How blest is he who can close his eye
And let the vain pageants of life pass by;
Untouched by the magic of earth can keep
His soul awake while the senses sleep;
Scorn the false and the fleeting that meets the view,
And see what is hidden and firm and true.
    Before the eyes of his sire one night,
Who loved him more than his own eyesight,
Yúsuf his head on a pillow laid,
And slept while a smile on his sweet mouth played.
But the heart of Jacob was troubled while
On that sleeping face he beheld the smile.
When, damp with the dew of their soft repose,
Those eyes of narcissus began to unclose,
And, like his own fortune, the boy was awake.
Thus to his darling the father spake:
"Why, O sweeter than sugar, didst thou
Wear a sugar-sweet smile on thy lip but now?"
And Yúsuf answered: "Father, I dreamed,
And the sun and moon and eleven stars seemed
To gather about me, high honour to pay,
And their heads before me in dust to lay."
"Beware," said the father, "my son, beware;
Thy secret vision to none declare.
Let not thy brothers the story know:
In a hundred ways they would work thee woe.
With hatred and envy their heart is stirred;
They would hate thee more if the tale were heard.
The thought of this dream they would ne'er endure,
For the meaning thereof is too clear and sure."
Thus, in his prudence the father spoke;
But Fate the chain of his counsel broke.
One with whom Yúsuf the secret shared,
To all the brothers the tale declared.
The secret that passes beyond a pair,
Is bruited abroad on the moving air.
"Yes," said a sage, "but that pair are the lips,
And no secret is that which beyond them slips."
The fury of carnage has oft been stirred,
And nobles have died for a spoken word.
Wise is the saw of the sage who said,
"Who heeds his secret will keep his head."
When the wild bird flies from her cage, in vain
Will ye follow her flight to ensnare her again.
When the tale to the ears of the brothers came,
They rent their garments with hearts aflame:
"What ails our father," they cried, " that he
His loss and advantage should fail to see ?
What can come of a foolish boy
But the childish play that is all his joy?
He works on all with deceit and lies,
And raises his value in folly's eyes.
Our aged father his wiles ensnare,
And life with him will be hard to bear.
He rends the bond of affection apart,
And engrosses the love of our father's heart.
Not content with the favour his arts have gained,
He wishes that we, pure-hearted, unstained,
Should bend our heads and adore in the dust
The stripling raised high by his father's trust;
Nay, father and mother, as well as we:
What will the end of this madness be ?
We, not this boy, are our father's friends;
On us, not on him, his welfare depends.
On the hills in the daytime we guard his sheep,
And our nightly watch in his house we keep.
Our arm protects him from foemen's might,
And we, mid his friends, are his glory and light.
What is there in him but his guile that thus
His head is exalted o'er all of us?
Come, let us counsel together and plot
To drive him away to a distant spot.
Ne'er has he felt for our griefs and pains,
And banishment now the sole cure remains.
Quick to the task we must needs away!
Still it is left us to choose the way.
The thorn that springs fast for mischief should be
Torn up from the root ere it grow to a tree."

Sourced from the verse translation published by Trübner & Co. of London in 1882. The staff of Pusteblume has typeset and proofed this text from a public domain source scan provided to Archive.org by one of its institutional partners, the University of Toronto.

See also: Homepage for this feature | Editor's Note by Zachary Bos | Preface | Excerpt 1: "Beauty" | Excerpt 2: "Love" | Excerpt 3: "Speech" | Excerpt 4: "The First Vision" | Excerpt 5: "Yusuf's Dream" | Excerpt 6: "The Garden" | A brief annotated bibliography for recent writings about the poetry and legacy of Jámí

About the author (quoting the Preface to the 1882 Trübner & Co. edition): "Núru-d-dín Abdu-r-Rahmán was born in the year 1414 A.D., at Jám, a little town in Khurásán, from which he took the poetic name, Jámí, by which he is generally known. At the age of five he received the name of Núru-d-dín, or, Light of the Faith; and in later life his learning, fame, and sanctity gained for him the title of Mauláná, or, Our Master. He studied at Herát and Samarkand, where he not only outstripped the ablest and most diligent of his fellow-students, but puzzled the most learned of his teachers. The fame of his learning soon spread to the most distant provinces of Persia, and into other Asiatic countries. Sultan Abu Sa’íd, Tímur’s uncle, invited him to his court at Herát, and all the princes, nobles, and learned men of the time sought the company of the distinguished poet. In 1472 A.D., Jámí performed the pilgrimage to Mecca, and, after some stay at Baghdad, returned in the following year to Herát, where he died in 1492."

About the translator: Ralph Thomas Hotchkin Griffith (1826–1906) was a scholar of Indology. Educated at Queen's College, over his career he produced translations of the Ramayana, the Kumara Sambhava of Kalidasa, and the Vedic scriptures.

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