Abul Qasim Hasan Unsuri Balkhi ( fa, ابوالقاسم حسن عنصری بلخی; died 1039/1040) was a 10–11th century

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

poet. ‘Unṣurī is said to have been born in

Balkh ), named for its green-tiled ''Gonbad'' ( prs, گُنبَد, dome), in July 2001 , pushpin_map=Afghanistan#Bactria#West Asia , pushpin_relief=yes , pushpin_label_position=bottom , pushpin_mapsize=300 , pushpin_map_caption=Location in Afghanistan ...

, today located in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, and he eventually became a poet of the royal court of

Mahmud of Ghazni Yamīn-ud-Dawla Abul-Qāṣim Maḥmūd ibn Sebüktegīn ( fa, ; 2 November 971 – 30 April 1030), usually known as Mahmud of Ghazni or Mahmud Ghaznavi ( fa, ), was the founder of the Turkic Ghaznavid dynasty, ruling from 998 to 1030. At th ...

, and was given the title ''Malik-us Shu'ara'' (King of Poets) under Sultan Maḥmūd of Ghazna. His ''Divan'' is said to have contained 30,000 distichs, of which only 2500 remain today. It includes the romance epic ''

Vāmiq u ‘Adhrā ''Metiochus and Parthenope'' ( el, Μητίοχος καὶ Παρθενόπη, ''Mētiokhos kai Parthenopē'') is an Ancient Greek novel that, in a translation by the eleventh-century poet ‘Unṣurī, also became the Persian romance epic ''Vā ...

''. The following dialog between an eagle and a crow, translated by Iraj Bashiri, is an example. In it the King of Poets, Unsuri, compares his own status vis-a-vis that of a young poet who has joined the court recently.

The Eagle and The Crow: A Dialogue

Translated by Iraj Bashiri: :A dialogue occurred, I happen to know, :Betwixt the white eagle and the crow. :Birds we are, said the crow, in the main, :Friends we are, and thus we shall remain. :Birds we are, agreed the eagle, only in name, :Our temperaments, alas, are not the same. :My leftovers are a king's feast, :Carrion you devour, to say the least. :My perch's the king's arm, his palace my bed, :You haunt the ruins, mingle with the dead. :My color is heavenly, as everyone can tell, :Your color inflicts pain, like news from hell. :Kings tend to choose me rather than you, :Good attracts good, that goes for evil too.

References

External links

*http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/Poets/Unsuri.html * E.G. Browne. ''Literary History of Persia''. (Four volumes, 2,256 pages, and twenty-five years in the writing). 1998. * Jan Rypka, ''History of Iranian Literature''. Reidel Publishing Company. 1968 .

The Eagle and The Crow: A Dialogue

References

External links

See also