1837.] 



Persian Poets. 



2G9 



into remembrance and I blushed through very shame." Fazli replied, 

 " Why should the sight of me bring your crimes to mind ?" Sozni re- 

 joined, " I feared lest God as a punishment for them might make me 

 as hideous as you are." 



Jeldli, another poet gifted with a nose of surprizing length com- 

 plained one day to Sozni of his having conferred on him the soubriquet, 

 " Kher-i-serkhom-khaneh" — the ass of the wine cellar ; but added 

 that he was not at all vindictive and knew how to bear insults without 

 resentment. Sozni pleasantly replied that this patient disposition of 

 his was sufficiently manifest to all the world, seeing that he had borne 

 for 40 years a nose so long and incommodious. Herbelot cites an 

 epigram on this subject written by Sozni to the following effect: 

 " Thy immeasurably long nose is a burthen to every one, for it is 

 thrust every where without the slightest discretion. I am well con- 

 vinced that when thou prostratest thyself it is less for the purpose of 

 devotion, than to disencumber thyself of the weight of a burden 

 alike insupportable to its possessor and to others." 



The author of the Tarikh-i-Guzideh observes that Sozni was also 

 called Abu Bekr id Beldli, and dwelt at Kilas, a dependancy of Samar- 

 cand. Mahomed Bukhtawer Khan states that he obtained the ap- 

 pellation of Sozni from his affection for the son of a needle- 

 maker. He cites the following couplet as the Malla* of the ode in 

 which Sozni craves divine mercy. 



" How long through the revolution of the mirror-like heavens shall we 

 continue to cast stones on the crystal mansion of self restraint !" The 

 date of his death is A. H.566 as appears from the numerical value of 

 the letters composing the following words calculated agreeably to the 

 Abjad. 



* For the explanation of Matlct, vide Essay on the metrical compositions of the Persians 

 (Journal No. 14, p. 116). 



