New NaqqaliIn Praise of Wisdom
Wisdom becomes a guide to conduct, perception and lifelong learning. Twenty-one English couplets redistribute nineteen in the digital reference.
The chapter in five texts
| Text | Chapter treatment and distinctive choices |
|---|---|
| F&R English | Wisdom becomes a guide to conduct, perception and lifelong learning. Twenty-one English couplets redistribute nineteen in the digital reference. |
| Moscow | The separate guide-to-both-worlds couplet remains visible; the English absorbs only part of its promise. |
| Mohl | The same ethical progression is present in the consulted pages, with the eye, ear and tongue as guarded faculties. |
| Ganjoor | Nineteen couplets provide the alignment anchor. Its fourth couplet has no separate English counterpart. |
| Khaleghi | The priority of wisdom and its three protective faculties remain central; the English avoids prescribing a single philosophical system. |
Parallel text
English left · Persian right. Persian: Ganjoor unless the individual source label specifies otherwise. Numbers open the relevant note; source-only rows show absorbed or unmatched material.
Argument and poetic form
Wisdom is praised through its work: it guides conduct, guards perception and sustains learning. The English’s expanded transitions make that practical argument accessible, while the Persian-only row keeps the partly absorbed promise of aid in both worlds visible.
The clearest poetic decisions are the guarded-gates image and the open ending of inquiry. Additions about the grave or the stumbling crowd apply the counsel rather than reproduce separately attested source images. Their function can be explained without confusing interpretation with variant evidence.
Couplet commentary
Quoted text · evidence · interpretation1–3 and G 4The missing guide couplet+
Ganjoor chapter 2; Moscow I printed pp 13–14; Khaleghi I printed pp 4–5. Mohl reprint I printed pp 4–5.
Moscow pp 13–14, Mohl p 4, K pp 4–5 and G all have a separate couplet calling wisdom guide, heart-opener and helper in both worlds. English 3 incorporates guidance, but does not separately state the two-world promise. The Persian-only row makes that partial absorption visible. The difference concerns distribution and compression, including a partially unstated promise.
4–10Wisdom and its loss+
Ganjoor chapter 2; Moscow I printed pp 13–14; Khaleghi I printed pp 4–5. Mohl reprint I printed pp 4–5.
English 4 follows G 5 rather than G 4. “By wisdom weighed” interprets az u, from it, through the subject of the passage. English 5–10 preserve the contrast between illuminated judgment and the anguish of its loss. “Chains” retains the source’s bound feet, and “eye of mind” renders cheshm-e jan through an intellectual idiom. The comparison also shows that both-world honor in G 10 becomes general honor in English 9.
11–12First creation and three gates+
Ganjoor chapter 2; Moscow I printed pp 13–14; Khaleghi I printed pp 4–5. Mohl reprint I printed pp 4–5.
G 12–13; Moscow p 14; Mohl p 4; K p 5. “First of God’s design” preserves the priority of wisdom without forcing the reader to resolve whether the passage describes chronological creation or conceptual precedence. “Gates” and “sentinels” make the eye, ear and tongue function as guarded points of entry. The underlying threefold ethical image is preserved.
The force of the image is practical: the faculties that admit knowledge also admit error. “Sentinels” makes wisdom an active protector rather than merely an ornament of the mind. The substitution is functional and rhetorical; it does not require the Persian to name a military guard separately.
13–16Expansion of the transition+
Ganjoor chapter 2; Moscow I printed pp 13–14; Khaleghi I printed pp 4–5. Mohl reprint I printed pp 4–5.
Two Persian couplets, G 14–15, are distributed across four English couplets. G 14 names both wisdom and soul, while the English concentrates on wisdom and the listener’s capacity. G 15 asks what use speech has without an audience and turns to creation; the English develops that turn into an encouragement to speak. The alignment therefore follows the rhetorical units rather than equal numbers.
17Creator and created art+
Ganjoor 16; Moscow I p 14; Mohl reprint I p 4; Khaleghi I p 5.
The transition from the created order to its maker links the praise of wisdom with the ensuing creation account. Knowledge of the world provides an occasion for recognition without claiming exhaustive knowledge of the creator. This distinction continues the Exordium’s separation of acknowledgement from comprehension.
18–21Learning and the grave image+
Ganjoor chapter 2; Moscow I printed pp 13–14; Khaleghi I printed pp 4–5. Mohl reprint I printed pp 4–5.
G 17–19; Moscow p 14; Mohl pp 4–5; K p 5. The Persian urges following the learned, moving through the world, and never resting from learning. “Terror of the grave” in English 18 is not explicit in these checked passages. It can be read as a poetic application of wisdom’s consoling power, but should be identified as an addition rather than defended as a variant. English 20 turns “do not rest from learning” into an image of avoiding the stumbling crowd. English 21 preserves the important conclusion that knowledge has no final limit.
The ending is deliberately open. Knowledge brings no final station at which the learner may declare the task complete. This modest conclusion matters beside the English additions about the grave and the crowd: those images apply the counsel to life, while the Persian itself places the emphasis on continuing inquiry.