Vis and Ramin

I CHAPTER
XLIV 266
RAMIN'S LETTER ABANDONING vis
WHEN Ramin saw that his mention of Vis afflicted Gul so
much, in order to demand pardon and forgiveness, at that
very moment, sitting down before her, he caused inkhorn 1
and paper to be brought. Although the ink 8 was mixed
with musk, he girded on the sharp sword of enmity, by
which he cut the branch of the tree of joy. Whoever
knows this story let her guard her heart from a lover and
not fall into love, lest, like Vis, she remain hopelessly heartbroken.
The impious Eamin wrote a letter to his own
constant lover, to Vis, who had not forsaken him. Thus
he wrote :
" Vis, thou thyself knowest how much shame, dishonour,
and harm have come upon me through love for thee, which
I have not hitherto realized on account of the arts of you
(and your nurse). I have displeased God, and am fallen
as a
into 3 such reproach among men that I am set up
remembrance in the land, and I see no man by whom my
deed is praised. Many have advised me, many have reproached
me, and many have even derided me because of
thee. As if my love for thee were enmity against them,
every woman and man curses what I have done. Even
those who knew me not had thus heard my name. All
defamed me. | I was become of no account in the eyes of 267
: sometimes I saw a sword
the army. This was my repose
over my head to slay me, sometimes a hungry lion on my
1
viii. 1.
SakeriU, 284 writing materials, sometimes "pen." Of. Isaiah
* Melani. Chavidcher, 75, 96, 280. R., 118*
285