Persian Literature/Volume 1/The Sháh Námeh/Zál, the Son of Sám

by Hakīm Abol-Qāsem Firdawsī Ṭūsī

ZÁL, THE SON OF SÁM

ACCORDING to the traditionary histories from which Firdusí has derived his legends, the warrior Sám had a son born to him whose hair was perfectly white. On his birth the nurse went to Sám and told him that God had blessed him with a wonderful child, without a single blemish, excepting that his hair was white; but when Sám saw him he was grieved:

His hair was white as goose’s wing,His cheek was like the rose of springHis form was straight as cypress tree—But when the sire was brought to seeThat child with hair so silvery white,His heart revolted at the sight.

His mother gave him the name of Zál and the people said to Sám, “This is an ominous event, and will be to thee productive of nothing but calamity; it would be better if thou couldst remove him out of sight.

No human being of this earthCould give to such a monster birth;He must be of the Demon race,Though human still in form and face.If not a Demon, he, at least,Appears a party-coloured beast.”

When Sám was made acquainted with these reproaches and sneers of the people, he determined, though with a sorrowful heart, to take him up to the mountain Alberz, and abandon him there to be destroyed by beasts of prey. Alberz was the abode of the Simurgh or Griffin,^[1] and, whilst flying about in quest of food for his hungry young ones, that surprising animal discovered the child lying alone upon the hard rock, crying and sucking its fingers. The Símurgh, however, felt no inclination to devour him, but compassionately took him up in the air, and conveyed him to his own habitation.

He who is blest with Heaven’s graceWill never want a dwelling-placeAnd he who bears the curse of FateCan never change his wretched state.A voice, not earthly, thus addressed.The Simurgh in his mountain nest—“To thee this mortal I resign,Protected by the power divine;Let him thy fostering kindness share,Nourish him with paternal care;For from his loins, in time, will springThe champion of the world, and bringHonour on earth, and to thy name;The heir of everlasting fame.”

The young ones were also kind and affectionate to the infant, which was thus nourished and protected by the Símurgh for several years.

1. The sex of this fabulous animal is not clearly made out! It tells Zál that it had nursed him like a father, and therefore I have, in this place, adopted the masculine gender, though the preserver of young ones might authorize its being considered a female. The Simurgh is probably neither one nor the other, or both! Some have likened the Simurgh to the Ippogrif or Griffin; but the Símurgh is plainly a biped; others again have supposed that the fable simply meant a holy recluse of the mountains, who nourished and educated the poor child which had been abandoned by its father.