gold and silver. Making their way home, they share the booty. One
day the goldsmith steals half of that which belonged to his companion- a plot borrowed from the fable of the two merchants narrated in ibn
Muqaffa’s introduction toKalila and Dimna.Unabletomakehim
confess, the artist secures two bear cubs from a hunter and feeds them
from a wooden effigy of the goldsmith. He kidnaps the goldsmith’s
sons, and then claims before a judge that they have magically turned
into bear cubs. Brought to the court, the cubs immediately attack the
goldsmith, seeking food. The goldsmith admits his treachery and
returns the treasure, the artist returns the sons. Like the story of
Mani and the pond, the story transforms the trope of the image as
deception, indicated by the idols, into the deceptive image (the effigy)
as revelation of a previous treachery.
He then tells a second tale in poetic form about a king who was“intimate
with a felicitous”companion with artistic skills comparable to Mani.
When he pictured water on a stone,
Anyone who saw it broke his pitcher on it.
If he stretched hisqalamaround the moon,
The moon did not see the darkness of the last day of the month.
From the fountain of freshness which was hisqalam
Vestiges of life appeared in his tracing.
His tracings resembled the Chinese silk,tiraz.
And his artistry (in its temptation) was a calamity for the faith.
Yet the king“looked at his Mani (only) with one eye,”for he had another
close companion, with a similar brush, competing with thefirst, who asked
that the king demand his portrait from thefirst artist.
That artist (naqsh-tirazor embroidery-puller) with the hand of Mani
Fancied in his mind the image of the Shah.
He took a page ravishing the heart.
And, in a triumphant mood, covered it with painting.
The Shah (was standing) with an arrow in his hand,
And in the corner of his eye
There was an angry glittering (as) of a lance (sinan),
(For) in order to take the twist out (out of theflight) of an arrow
One should screw up one eye.
With this new idea the clever painter
Disentangled the knot in the thread of his talent.
When the Shah understood his thought deep as the sea,
He gave him two kingdoms in reward for his labor,
One gift was for the shape of his mastery,
168 Deceiving Deception