Vis and Ramin

206 I
180 VISRAMIANI
place he made an irrigation canal 1 flow from his eyes.
He lamented so piteously that he was pitiable even to his
foes. He said :
" Thou knowest not, ravisher of my heart, what a
plight I am in, or how wearisome life is to me without
thee ! Even a netted 2 partridge 3
pities me, distressed
at thine absence. If thou hast seen any grief, Moabad,
consolation and joy are due to thee. 4
I am worthy
of woe, for I have sought means to mine own death.
But, by thy sun, I did it for thy 5 grant me a
sake.
moment of life without thee.
May God not
Thy form is
imprinted on 6
my heart. If I count all thy beauties one
by one, I have not enough days to tell them, and I cannot
attain them. If mine eyes weep, they do well, for they
can never see loveliness like thine. With a thousand
entreaties I pray God that I may not die until such time as
I shall see thy face again. But since I am without thee, I
"
doubt whether I shall remain alive till to-morrow !
When
Vis the heart-ravisher parted from Eamin she
remained as if
7
she had a dragon's face ; thus it befell her,
and she forgot fear for herself and remembrance of woe.
In grief for Ramin's plight, like one mad she turned round
in the room and knew not what she said or did. She
piteously struck her peerless face with her crystal 8 hand.
Sometimes she scratched her face, sometimes she tore her
hair. The earth was full of the musk from her hair, the
air was full of fire from her sighs. When she sighed and
had made
tore her hair, in the castle it was as if they
smoke of musk and aloes. 9 Her face and her breast were
10 made blue by her blows, and Euphrates flowed hotly from
her eyes ;
her heart was like a red-hot iron, 11 for when she
struck her breast sparks flew forth. She loosed her gar-
1 Eu, 194.
4 Text obscure, meaning evidently :
solation," etc.
*
I.e., Vis's.
2 MaJche. 3 Cacabi, E., 227-8.
7 Veshpis pirsa like Medusa ; veshapi, 151.
" Moabad will give thee con-
e
Cf. B., 247.
s Broli, R, 204, 260, 404, 676, 693, 1118, 1165. Alva, 148.
Ep'hrati, R., 676; Gihon, 187. u Shant'hi, 193, 219.