Iskandar Dictates His Letter to His Mother

From D5.36, Iskandar’s Letter to His Mother. It illustrates D5.36.1–12 (to D5.36.25):

D5.36.1
He bade them write his mother, to revealThat news of death no man could long conceal.
D5.36.2
“In this wide world I took my destined span;No time can add or take from life’s fixed plan.
D5.36.3
Do not lament or grieve upon my death,For every life must yield its final breath.
D5.36.4
The base and royal-born must face the grave;No craft can shield the monarch or the slave.
D5.36.5
I charge the Roman chiefs, when home they ride,To take your judgment always as their guide.
D5.36.6
In all their deeds they shall obey your hand,And hold their pledge to you throughout the land.
D5.36.7
Those chiefs of Iran who could threaten Rum,And bring the Roman homeland to its doom,
D5.36.8
I gave each lord a province for his own,That he might rule its kingdom from a throne.
D5.36.9
He need not cast his eyes on Rum as prey;Our realm can rest with all such threats away.
D5.36.10
A hundred thousand dinars, year by year,Give working folk from all my gold held here.
D5.36.11
In Mesr, bury me with faithful care,And heed the final wishes I declare.
D5.36.12
If Roshanak should bear to me a son,Then let my royal lineage through him run.