Unsuri

Abul Qasim Hasan Unsuri Balkhi (died 1039/1040) was a 10–11th 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 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. 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.