On Thursday, 3 March 2011 at 22:41:41 UTC, Naseer wrote:
> janaab-i-Afzal Sahib, aadaab 'arz hai.

> Yes, perhaps.
> I have searched for this phrase in the net and was only able to
> find...
> gar qubuul uftad, zahe 'izz-o-sharaf
> but no clue about its author was given by anyone. As it happens, this
> line comes from a poem in Farsi entitled "A tail-less fox" by Isma'iil
> Merathi.
> ALUPers will have read this story in their childhood. I remember
> reading about a "laNDuurii lomRii" in an Urdu book. In Merathi's poem,
> a fox gets trapped in a hunter's snare and as it struggles to free
> itself, it manages to escape but leaves its tail behind. Of course it
> was pretty embarrassing for it to face all the other foxes in the
> community so it tried to sell the idea that she was overjoyed after
> having lost her tail and gave all kinds of plausible reasons why they
> should also get rid of theirs. After presenting all her arguments in
> favour of getting rid of the tail, she exclaims:
> hadyah-e az Hikmat aavardam ba-kaf
> gar qubuul uftad, zahe 'izz-o-sharaf
> Hikmat kaa ik tuHfah laa'ii hathelii pih rakhe
> jo qubuul ho jaa'e to jaag jaa'eN bhaag mere (Not literal translation)
> Naseer

janaab-i-Raj Kumar SaaHib, aadaab.

hadyah-e az Hikmat aavardam ba-kaf
gar qubuul uftad, zahe 'izz-o-sharaf
اسماعیل میرٹھی

تحفہ ایک حکمت کا ہتھیلی پر ہُوں لائی
ہووے جو قُبول تو کیا شَرَف و عزّت پائی

kaisaa rahaa tarjumah?

Naseer

What an interesting thread!

Thank you, Naseer sahib, for shedding light on the phrase in question. I had never bothered to go beyond the phrase to wonder about its roots. I am glad to have learned about it from you.

With best regards,

Shoaib Tanvir
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Do. Or do not. There is no try.