Vis and Ramin

RAMIN'S ESCAPE 179
there to separation from Vis, because of her frightened
heart and disgraced name he went into the rocks. He
wept at parting from his beloved, and for the fact that he
had no resource left save patience. He feared Moabad
partly for Vis's sake, partly for his own. He knew not the
shall
road, nor what to do. He said to his heart : "What
I do, heart, what shall I do ? Whatever of mine is not
lasting, it is thou that hast done it all to me. Strive
not with my fate. Sometimes thou causest my blood to
flow with the sword ; sometimes thou takest away my soul,
and sometimes thou embitterest my being!
" PARABLE (Araci) : Fate is like an archer ; separation is
always its arrow and my soul its
1
butt. My patience is
like a broken caravan, 2 and my soul like a sacked
city.
"But now I was a free 3
sovereign, and now I am a wild
sheep 4
straying in the rocks. My eyes are like clouds
passing over the mountain, and they rain a thousand woes
on my heart. Weep, that the rock and let me shed tears that I
may resound to
may dye the stones
me,
red.
Thunder does not resemble my sighing,
for it is from the
wind, and the latter from fire. The cloud is not like mine
eyes, for from it falls dew in drops, and from them it flows
in streams. But what can I do that befits me ? Ah ! but
now I had in my hands my heart and my heart's desire ;
now I no longer have my heart, nor have I the ravisher of
my heart. My state is as if I had been heaven, and now
am become earth.. My joy was like a fleeting flower of
spring."
| When Ramin had roamed a long time in the rocks, 205
remembrance, tears, grief for parting from Vis, his thought
and his feet, as
of the plight he was in, all united together ;
if they had been fettered, could no longer go forward. He
wept for his heart and his beloved. When he had lavishly
as a land washed
wept, the rust was wiped from his heart ;
by rain he rejoiced. Wherever Ramin sat down, in that
1
Satagno (? cf. sagnoba, 142).
3
Nebitri, 171, 208.
' Karavani (mokaravntni, 84).
4
Ami, 155.