Note 429 — THE BOOK OF THE MESNEVĪ (continued 4)

Qur’ān liii. 17. There is a pun here. The Arabic for “swerved” and the Persian for “a crow,” are identical in orthography,—zāg. Muhammed has been called by other Persian poets: “The nightingale of the garden of mà zāg;” which really means “swerved not,” but may be rendered: “we, the crows.”