Manuchehr Hears of Zal

Ganjoor sends Nohzar to Sahm. Mohl pp 115–116 additionally names Manuchehr’s two sons, Nohzar and Zarasp, supporting English 3–4. Khaleghi p 174 records the two-son notice in the apparatus.

The added royal genealogy has a printed location. The messenger’s role is carefully limited: he conveys royal blessing and summons the father and son for recognition. He does not himself confer Zal’s eventual authority.

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The meeting, dismounting, embrace, inquiry and delivery of the message lead to Sahm’s journey toward court.

“A new world-champion” can be read through the renewed champion or his emerging son in this compressed encounter. It does not itself install a second holder of Sahm’s formal office. The English’s elevated description preserves the sense of a household newly restored to public honor.

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Sahm dismounts before the king’s standard, is permitted to ride and proceeds to court, where Gharan and Sahm sit at either hand. Mohl p 116 supplies the fuller blessing at reception.

The paired “crown-wearer” and “crown-seeker” formula distinguishes sovereign from serving lord without turning the latter into an active claimant against Manuchehr. The English retains the ceremonial relation in the Persian titles.

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The reference presents Zal, the king’s wonder and the charge not to hurt him needlessly. Mohl p 116 prints the additional command to teach both battle and feast because he has known only birds, mountain and nest. Khaleghi p 175 records that command in the apparatus.

The king does more than admire an unusual body: he makes future care enforceable as his own trust. The English’s “elder’s sense of law” renders mature judgment where Ganjoor’s last phrase repeats a lion image; the displayed reference should not be claimed as the same wording.

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Sahm recounts exposure and rescue; the narrator first says the story eventually filled the world, then gives the father’s report. Mohl p 117 supplies the fuller unscalable mountain and desperate longing. Khaleghi p 176 retains the brief report in its main text and records the long first-person retelling below in the apparatus.

The repeated scene changes who speaks and who must answer for the past. The English keeps that accountability. The forecast that the story will spread is a narrator’s retrospective frame, not a reason to force the whole report into a later time.

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The prayer calls the speaker sinful and asks that his cruelty not burn his soul. Ganjoor 39 explicitly gives feathers in place of silk and meat in place of milk; Mohl p 117 also has پر. English 46 instead gives “rough hide.”

The sustenance contrast is preserved, but the covering is materially different. “Rough hide” conveys a wild upbringing without rendering the specific feather covering. This local difference is worth identifying because the foster-family’s bird nature is central, while no casual rewrite of the English is required.

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The shared report has answered prayer, the bird’s ascent and circling, descent with Zal and a loving nurse comparison. Khaleghi p 176’s long apparatus passage includes a scent filling the world and the father’s dried eyes and mouth, supporting the English’s fuller sensory reaction; musk is its poetic specification.

The detail records Sahm’s overwhelmed perception, not a new magical ability assigned to Zal. The English turns awe and longing into bodily response. The note distinguishes the fuller printed report from Ganjoor’s shorter account.

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Ganjoor closes Sahm’s report with bringing the son before the king and making his story known. Mohl p 118 adds explicit praise of the Simorgh and acceptance of divine decree.

The English’s more extended close allows the public confession to finish in gratitude rather than self-congratulation. “Hidden truth” is now disclosed; it does not mean Sahm succeeds in hiding the exposure again.

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