Read› Daftar 1› The story of the merchant whose caged parrot gave a message to the parrots of Hindustan when he went on a journey› beyt 1567
M1:1567 — یک قدح می نوش کن بر یاد من / گر نمیخواهی که بدهی داد من
M1:1567
Meaning · به زبانِ تو — Your language · AI
The caged parrot asks its free friends to at least toast to its memory, if they are unwilling or unable to help it achieve justice and freedom.
This couplet is part of a message from a caged parrot, delivered by its merchant owner to a flock of free parrots in India. The parrot has been describing its lonely suffering in captivity while its friends enjoy the freedom of the meadows and gardens. It portrays itself as drinking goblets of its own blood (a metaphor for intense suffering), a stark contrast to the wine it imagines its friends drinking.
The request here is layered with sorrowful irony. The first line, "Drink a single cup of wine in my memory," is a conventional gesture of remembrance among friends. The second line, however, adds a sharp, poignant edge: "if you have no desire to grant me my due." The parrot's "due" (dād) is justice, which in this context means help, solidarity, and a path to liberation. The couplet thus becomes a gentle but firm accusation: if you will not fight for my freedom, the very least you can do is remember me in your moments of pleasure. It highlights the painful gap between the captive's suffering and the free world's seeming indifference, a central theme in Sufi allegories of the soul's imprisonment in the material world.
- قدح
- Qadaḥ. A cup, goblet, or wine-cup. A standard image in classical Persian poetry associated with wine, conviviality, and mystical intoxication.
- داد
- Dād. Justice, equity, fairness; that which is due or right. Here, it implies the help and solidarity owed to a suffering friend.
Discussion — Ask about this beyt — answered from the Masnavi, every verse cited
Your conversation stays on this device unless you share it.
What readers asked0
No questions shared yet — yours could be the first.