
The Stars Foretell Shaghad's Treachery
From C9.2, Rostam Comes to Kabul for His Brother. It illustrates C9.2.5–14:
- C9.2.5From Kashmir and Kabul the sages came,Astrologers and chiefs of honored name.
- C9.2.6They worshipped God and sought out knowledge, wiseIn Indian tables used to read the skies.
- C9.2.7They reckoned all the heavens to exploreWhat that fair child might find in fate’s vast store.
- C9.2.8The readers of the stars, in wonder caught,Looked at each other, troubled by their thought.
- C9.2.9They spoke to Zal, the son of Sahm, and said,“O heir of those whose stars shone overhead,
- C9.2.10We searched the heavens’ secrets, sphere by sphere;They hold no love for this young child so dear.
- C9.2.11When this fair infant comes at last of age,And enters on the valiant warrior’s stage,
- C9.2.12He will destroy the house of Sahm one day,And bring the line of Nariman’s decay.
- C9.2.13Through him Sistan will ring with troubled cries,And in Iran great tumult will arise.
- C9.2.14He will make bitter every person’s years,Then from this world he quickly disappears.”
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