Unsuri

Abul Qasim Hasan Unsuri Balkhi (; died 1039/1040) was a 10th–11th century Persian poet. ‘Unṣurī is said to have been born in Balkh, today located in Afghanistan, and he eventually became a poet of the royal court of Mahmud of Ghazni, and was given the title ''Malik-us Shu'ara'' (King of Poets) under Mahmud. His ''Divan'' is said to have contained 30,000 distichs, of which only 2500 remain today. It includes the romance epic '' Vāmiq u ‘Adhrā''. The following dialog between an eagle and a crow, translated by Iraj Bashiri, is an example. In it, 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

*https://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 .

See also

* Suri
* List of Persian poets and authors

10th-century Persian-language poets
11th-century Persian-language poets
Year of birth missing
1039 deaths
Poets from the Ghaznavid Empire
People from Balkh
11th-century Iranian people
10th-century Iranian people

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