"[11]
[11] The sayings of Buzurjmihr, the sagacious prime minister
of King Nushirvan, are often cited by Persian writers,
and a curious story of his precocity when a mere youth
is told in the _Lata'yif at-Taw'ayif_, a Persian
collection, made by Al-Kashifi, of which a translation
will be found in my "Analogues and Variants" of the
Tales in vol. iii of Sir R. F. Burton's _Supplemental
Arabian Nights_, pp. 567-9--too long for reproduction
here.
A parallel to this last saying of the Persian vazir is found in a
"notable sentence" of a wise Greek, in this passage from the _Dictes, or
Sayings of Philosophers_, printed by Caxton (I have modernised the
spelling):
"There came before a certain king three wise men, a Greek, a Jew, and a
Saracen, of whom the said king desired that each of them would utter
some good and notable sentence. Then the Greek said: 'I may well correct
and amend my thoughts, but not my words.' The Jew said: 'I marvel of
them that say things prejudicial, when silence were more profitable.'
The Saracen said: 'I am master of my words ere they are pronounced; but
when they are spoken I am servant thereto.' And it was asked one of
them: 'Who might be called a king?' And he answered: 'He that is not
subject to his own will.
Pages:
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56