Nezam ol-Molk on good governance

Below is a small portion from Khwaje Nezam ol-Molk Tusi's Siyasatnameh, along with my translation and commentary. The text is a good example of ادبیات تعلیمی (adabiyāt-e ta'limi, 'didactic literature'), a genre of Persian literature which aims to educate the reader (often about virtue and morality).

Original text (Persian)

گویند روزی نوشروان عادل برنشسته بود و با خاصّگیان به شکار می‌رفت و بر کنار دیهی گذر کرد. پیری را دید نود ساله که گوز در زمین می‌نشاند. نوشروان را عجب آمد؛ زیرا که بیست سال گوز کشته بر می‌دهد. گفت: «ای پیر گوز می‌کاری؟» گفت: «آری». خدایگان گفت: «چندان بخواهی زیست که برش بخوری؟» پیر گفت: «کشتند و خوردیم و کاریم و خورند.» نوشروان را خوش آمد. گفت: «زه.» در وقت خزینه‌دار را گفت تا هزار درم به پیر داد. پیر گفت: «ای خداوند هیچ کس زودتر از بنده گوز نخورد.» گفت: «چگونه؟» پیر گفت: «اگر من گوز نکشتمی و خدایگان این جا گذر نکردی، آن چه به بنده رسید، نرسیدی و بنده آن جواب ندادی، من این هزار درم از کجا یافتمی؟» نوشروان گفت: «زها زه»، خزانه‌دار در وقت، دو هزار درم دیگر بدو داد؛ بهر آنک دوباره زه به زبان نوشروان رفت.

English translation

They say that one day, Anushirvan the Just had mounted his horse and was going hunting along with the nobles of his court, when he passed alongside a village. He saw an old man¹ of ninety years who was planting a walnut tree in the ground. Anushirvan was astonished, as walnut trees do not bear nuts until 20 years after planting. He asked, "Hey old man, are you planting walnuts?" The old man said "Yes." The king then asked "How long do you plan to live, that you'll be able to eat the nuts?" The old man said "Others planted and we ate, and we will plant so that others may eat."² Anushirvan liked this. He said "Bravo," and immediately told his royal treasurer to give the old man a thousand drams. The old man said, "Your Highness, no one has ever tasted the walnuts they planted as soon as I!" The king asked, "How so?" to which the old man replied, "If I hadn't planted the walnuts, and Your Highness hadn't passed by here, that which has happened wouldn't have occurred, I wouldn't have given you that answer, and where would I have got these thousand drams from?" Anushirvan said, "Bravo, bravo!" and the royal treasurer quickly gave the old man another two thousand drams, because "bravo" had come from the king's lips twice.

1. The original word is پیر (pir), a term fraught with meaning that is not easily rendered into English. I translated it as "old man," but in fact پیر is gender-neutral (and here this same passage is titled "Anushirvan and the Wise Old Woman"). Furthermore, the term is more respectful than calling someone "old man" in English, but I couldn't come up with a better alternative.

2. This line has become a well-known saying in Persian.

Commentary

Nezam ol-Molk wrote his Siyasatnameh a good 500 years after the death of Anushirvan. The author chose this Sassanid Iranian emperor as a model of the behavior appropriate for kings, viziers, and people of the court, as Anushirvan was regarded as a just and beloved leader by Iranians. It is also notable that Nezam ol-Molk chose a pre-Islamic Iranian leader as his model. Nezam ol-Molk was an adviser to the Seljuq Empire, a Persianized Turkic dynasty that promoted the indigenous Iranian culture and patronized Persian literature. The Siyasatnameh is exemplary of its cultural milieu in that it draws from both Islamic and pre-Islamic elements. In the story above, Anushirvan rewards the old man not only for his good actions, but for his sweet words as well, possibly a reference to the Zoroastrian mantra "good thoughts, good words, good deeds." It should also be noted that Nezam ol-Molk was a native of Tus, a city in Khorasan that was a center of Iranian identity and produced many other great literary figures, including the famous Ferdowsi.

I posted this text less as a statement about governance and more as an exercise for myself in translation from Persian to English. Nevertheless, I do think it contains a noble lesson, which is one of the reasons why I enjoy Persian literature so much.