Vis and Ramin

VIS BETROTHED UNBORN 7
time of thy youth ! Since thou art thus when thou art a
half-faded rose, how could those who erstwhile saw thee live
or have reason ! Now that.my heart is darkened and I am
without hope, do not, I pray, cut me off from thy race ; wed
me to thy daughter, for the fruit is like the seed, and thy
daughter is like thee. My
blessed
fate and future will then be more
when of thy race a sun like thee shall shine in my
palace. And if I find a sun on earth I shall not seek a
1
sun."
heavenly
Thus in reply spoke Shahro the fair : "0
sovereign of sovereigns! Nothing
most
better could befall us
than to have thee for son-in-law if God had been merciful
and I had a daughter ;
but, by thy sun, I have no daughter,
else if I had I would have told thee. Hitherto no girl-child
has been born to me, and if now one shall be given to me,
without fail I shall tell you*' (var., " I shall give her to you
as wife ").
Then Shah Moabad adjured her :
" Swear unto me that
thee she shall wed none save me."
if a daughter be given
The wife of Qaran, the mother of Viro, 2 made a solemn
"
If a daughter be given me I shall wed
vow with an oath :
her to thee, and she is thy wife."
Shahn/s husband was Qaran. 8 |
But Shahro was of nobler 8
liirth than Qaran; she was of the offspring of king Djimshed,
who was the fifth king after Adam.
They mixed musk and rose-water and therewith they
wrote down the oath, and they made a contract with each
"
If a daughter be given to Shahro, Shah Moabad's
other :
wife shall she be."
Behold what sorrow they both were to see: He was
wedding the unborn, and the mother was betrothing the
unborn.
1
1 ;
,
202.
* Ch. oinite " the mother of V iro. ' '
3 Ch. omits " Shahro's husband was Qaran."