I saw a bird alighted on the city-walls of Tus*
Grasping in its claws Kaika’us’s head
It was saying to that head, ‘Shame! Shame!
Where now the sound of the bells and the boom of the drum?’
Lit.
Tus was an ancient city in Khurasan, gradually supplanted in importance by the near-by
city of Meshed. Kaika’us was a king of the legendary Kayani dynasty. The reference to
‘bells’ underlines the evocation of pagan or pre-Islamic times; the use of bells, associated
with Christians, non-believers in the eyes of Muslims, was forbidden in Islamic countries.
From: Heath-Stubbs and Avery, 1979