بخش ۸ - گفتار اندر فراهم آوردن کتاب

What this poem says

The truth is that speaking of knowledge and wisdom has grown difficult, since the eloquent forebears walked this garden before us, said whatever there was to say, and gathered its fruit already. But even if I cannot claim the highest branch of this great tree, simply standing in its shade will shelter me from time's harm, and my only hope is that, leaning on this shade-giving cypress, by setting down the chronicle of kings, I may leave an eternal memorial in the world. Do not imagine that these stories are mere lies and fables, or sorcery and magic — know instead that these tales are of two kinds: some agree directly with reason and logic, while others hold a hidden mystery, so that one must look past the surface of the words to search out the buried meaning and lesson within. This is how it happened: in ancient times there existed a precious book full of historical tales, but its pages had scattered, and each part was kept by a different wise mobed. Until, at last, a noble and valiant hero of pure Iranian lineage — a generous, wise man who loved history — girded himself to revive that earliest age. He summoned aged and learned mobeds from every corner of the land and asked them about the ancient kings and their manner of rule: how they had kept the world flourishing at the start, and how their age of happiness and victory came to an end, leaving the world in the ruin that fell to us. Those elders recounted for him, one by one, the history of the kings and the world's long tale of rise and fall, and that noble lord, on hearing their words, laid the foundation of a magnificent book — one that became an eternal memorial in the world and stirred the admiration of everyone, young and old, humble and great.

A prose synopsis, not a translation of the verse. Translated from the Persian summary.