Vis and Ramin

CHAPTEK LII
THE FIFTH LETTER OF VIS TO RAMIN
" THE absence and expectation of a lover is very pleasant if
fickleness and desertion be not added thereto. What though
separation be bitter, surely it will be forgotten in the
expectation (of reunion). Endurance of solitude is pleasant
if there be hope of meeting again. For lovers to be con-
tinually together is blameworthy : first, because of others
seeing them; secondly, because however much they love
being with each other, some little thing will annoy them
with one another. Sometimes they are sulky with each
other, sometimes angry, sometimes they are displeased and
sullen, sometimes they reproach each other with something
else, and in love the worst of all things is this : to be sated
of each other and to make an end of loving. I cannot thus
when loneliness wearies my heart and
makes me complain of separation from my lover. I say
299 console my heart |
thus: 'Be patient; thou hast seen grief, and the end of
grief is always joy. After winter, with its poison, always
comes summer. Surely thus it will be with me, to be united
to him in the end ! Now, thou hast been afflicted a year
since thou expectest to see him a moment. If joy at his
side for one day fall to thy lot, the grief of two years will be
forgotten. Thou, heart, art not worse than a gardener,
and he, of whom thou thinkest, is not worse than a rose-
tree. Look when he plants, how much grief he sees before
the plucking ! Day and night he is in trouble and preparation,
he pricks his hand with the thorn in this hope : that
the rose some time will bloom. Thus also a man tames a
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