Prevod

It is also told that one day the just King Anushirwan pretended to be ill. He sent out his trusted servants and faithful officers, commanding them to travel throughout his kingdom and to the farthest reaches of his dominions, and to seek an old brick from a ruined village with which he might be cured. He told his companions that the physicians had prescribed this remedy. They journeyed through every part of his kingdom and all his dominions, then returned and said, “We found neither a ruined place nor an old brick anywhere in the kingdom.” Anushirwan rejoiced at this, gave thanks to God, and said, “I wished only to put my dominions to the test and examine my kingdom, to learn whether any ruined place remained that I might rebuild it. Now that no place remains but is flourishing, the affairs of the kingdom are complete, all is in good order, and the cultivation of the land has reached perfection.” And dawn overtook Shahrazad, and she fell silent, leaving off her permitted tale.

When it was the four hundred and sixty-fifth night

She said: It has reached me, O fortunate King, that when the officers of the king’s realm returned to him and said, “We found no ruined place anywhere in the kingdom,” he gave thanks to God and said, “Now the affairs of the kingdom are complete, all is in good order, and the cultivation of the land has reached perfection.” Know, then, O King, that those kings of old devoted their care and effort to making their dominions flourish only because they knew that the more prosperous a realm, the greater the desire to dwell in it. For they knew that the words of the learned and the sayings of the wise were true beyond doubt: “Religion rests upon kingship, kingship upon soldiers, soldiers upon wealth, wealth upon the flourishing of the land, and the flourishing of the land upon justice toward its people.” Thus they would countenance no one’s oppression or injustice, nor permit their retainers to commit abuses, knowing that subjects cannot endure tyranny, and that lands and settlements fall into ruin when oppressors gain mastery over them. Their inhabitants scatter and flee to other dominions, the kingdom dwindles, the revenues of the land diminish, the treasuries are emptied of wealth, and the lives of the subjects are embittered. For they have no love for a tyrant, and their prayers against him never cease; so the king finds no joy in his kingdom, and the causes of his destruction swiftly overtake him.