40 



THE PRAISE OF GARDENS 



ZEHIR- 

 ED-DIN 



MUHAMMED 



(1482- I so) 



Forth from fresh burgeons the wine-grapes ying 



End-long the trellises did in clusters hing. 



The locked buttons on the gemmed trees, 



O'erspreading leaves of Nature's tapestries. 



Soft gresy verdure after balmy showers 



On curling stalk(y)s smiling to their flowers. 



Beholding them so many diverse new 



Some pers, some paille, some burnet, and some blue, 



Some grey, some gules, some purple, some sanguine, 



Blanched, or brown, some fawch, yallow many a one, 



Some heavenly coloured in celestial (de)gree, 



Some watery-hued as the deep wavy sea, 



And some depart in freckles red and white, 



Some bright as gold with aureate leavys light ; 



The daisy spread abroad her crownet small, 



And every flower onlappit in the dale. 



In battle gear burgeons the banewort wild, 



The clover, catcluke, and the cammamyld ; 



The flower-de-luce forth spread his heavenly hue, 



Flower Damasks, and Columbine white and blue, 



Seyr downye small on Dent-de-lion sprang, 



The young green blooming strawberry-leaves amang. 



Prologue to Twelfth Book of sEneid 

 (slightly modernised). 



Emperor of Hindustan, one of the descendants of Zengiskhan and of Tamer- 

 lane, extended his dominions by conquest to Delhi and the greater part of 

 Hindustan; and transmitted to his famous descendants, Akber and Aureng- 

 zebe ' the ma ^^ nf Empire of the Moguls. A desperate warrior, an 

 elegant poet, a great admirer of beautiful prospects and fine flowers, a very 

 resolute and jovial drinker of wine. The following extracts are from a faithful 

 translation of his Journal and Narrative of his life and transactions. (Lord 

 Jeffrey's Review of * Memoirs of Baber,' by Leyland & Erskine, 1827). 



OPPOSITE to the fort of Adinaphur (south of the Kabul 

 river), to the south on a rising ground, I formed a 

 charbagh (great garden), in the year 914 (=1508). It is called 



