Indo-Iranica April 1949

Indian scholars of today have yet to commence making investigations and researches into those activities of Zoroastrian Iran which led to the overthrow of the Babylonian Empire in the middle of the sixth century B. C. the age of Sakyasinha the Buddha. [...] Some time in 1912 Kazim-zada the editor of the Iranshahr came across a manuscript dealing with the life and quatrains of the poetess.4 On the authority of that manuscript he says that when the father of the poetess saw the beautiful face of the newly born baby he exclaimed 'MO hash!' (thou art the Moon!) 6 and hence she was called Mahasti. [...] The tavern with drunkards full of mirth ever be On fire the devotee's cloak of piety be The tattered cloak and the wool azure Trampled under the feet of the toper be. [...] Who could the thief be for when he enters the house For the house escapes through the windows The house is on the flight and the thief is in search of goods When the house is gone the articles are seized by him. [...] A rakish haunter of a tavern and a lover to be An object of contempt to the whole creation to be In the pleasant company of drunkards to be Are better than in the cloak of hypocrisy to be.