Vis and Ramin

VIS TO BE IMPRISONED 159
mine enemy. What does it avail me to shut the door if
my water l rises from the inside ? In my old age I am
fallen 2 into such mischance that fortune has forgotten me.
Now for this I wish to go away and leave Vis here. How
can I keep her ? For the sight of Ramin she will break a
brazen fortress 3 and iron chains. I know no means save
this, that I take Ramin with me, and leave Vis here weeping
in the castle of Ashkup'ht'hidevan. 4 When Vis is in
the fortress, and Ramin with the army, it will be impossible
for them to meet. But I commit the castle to thy care,
and it behoves thee to take pains and be watchful. My
heart trusts none save thee, for in | all ways thou art a 180
chosen man and vigilant. I do not instruct thee how to
act. As thou knowest and as is fitting, so guard these two
witches. By no means let Ramin steal into that stronghold.
Now, I am going a two hundred days' march in
quest of glory, and if Ramin by any means meets Vis now,
all my glory will be in vain and filled with shame. Though
two hundred men built a house, one layer-waste can make
their building in vain. I have three sorcerers at home, of
whom one could overcome the devil-hosts with witchcraft.
If a thousand dcvis lighted upon those three, they could not
by their cunning astonish 6 them. As thou knowest, they
have bound me thus, they have reft my heart of joy, they
have broken the shield of my patience, they have shamed
me in all the earth. A drowning man in a billowy sea
feels not such fear as afflicts me and as I feel on their
account."
When Zard heard this from Moabad, he said :
"
monarch, mightier than the sun, grieve not so much.
( irief makes a man sick. What one man is there upon the
earth of whom thou com plainest and weepest so much as
thou dost for such a wench as this ? Even if she were a
black den* in witchcraft, no one would be more cowardly 7
1
*
/.., the flood.
Chadchrili, 115, 192. Like Dana*.
214, Persian. ? cave of the devit. Graf, " Hkifti Dlwan."
? reading hcuiran. Graf, ? " Ahriman."
subjected, 169, 209.