The Maqámát of Badí‘ al-Zamán al-Hamadhání, tr. W.J. Prendergast [1915] at sacred-texts.com
‘ÍSÁ IBN HISHÁM related to us and said: While we were at Sariah 3 with the governor thereof there came before him a youth with the fragrance of saffron upon him. So the assembly stood up for him and, out of respect, he was seated in the chief place; but awe of him hindered me from asking him his name. Then he began and said to the governor: 'What hast thou done with yesterday's discussion, perhaps thou hast relegated it to oblivion?' 4 He said: 'God forbid! but there has hindered me from attaining to it a reason which it is impossible to explain, and one whose wounds 5 cannot be healed?' Said the intruder: 'Sirrah, the delay in the fulfilment of this promise has been long, and I shall not find thy morrow regarding it other than thy to-day, or
thy to-day concerning it other than thy yesterday. In promise breaking, I can only compare thee to the Salix Aegyptia tree whose blossoms fill the eye, but there is no fruit there.'
Said ‘Ísá ibn Hishám: When he had reached this point, 1 I cut him short and said: 'God guard thee, art thou not al-Iskanderí?' He answered: 'And perpetual may thy preservation be, how excellent is thy sagacity!' Then I said: 'Welcome to the commander of speech and to the stray of the generous. 2 I have searched for it till I found it, and sought it till I obtained it.' Then we became mutually friendly till the highland attracted me and the lowland swallowed him. I ascended and he descended, and I fared eastwards and he westwards. After his departure, I said:--
175:3 Sariah: A town in Tabaristan (Mazandaran) and the seat of the governor during the rule of the Ṭáhirides.
175:4 … Oblivion: Probably an allusion to Qur’án, xix, 23.
175:5 Whose wounds: That is, the effects of his inability to perform what he had promised.
176:1 … This point: Literally, this place.
176:2 … The stray of the generous--That is the stray camel of the generous to which ‘Ísá ibn Hishám here compares al-Iskanderí.
176:3 O would that I knew of a brother: Metre, kamil.
176:4 … May poverty not prosper: Literally, may the milk of poverty not flow copiously!