Vis and Ramin

THE NINTH LETTER OF VIS TO RAMIN 279
separation. Turn his hard heart to love. Make him to
remember his former love for me; make him have pity
on me. Give him such a burden as afflicts me, that it may
be even heavier than a mountain. Either lead him hither
to me by this, or lead me thither by Thy mercy. Open to
us a road through inconstancy. The road of grief will be
blocked when I see him. Guard him, God, from all mischances,
and give him no grief save my love. Make him
endure no annoyance ; and if Thou lettest me see him no
more, I have had enough of
my days
life without him. Now, may
be added to him. If I am to be separated from
him, it is better that I should have no life, and that he
should have two lives.'
"
My desired one, how long shall I bewail, how long
shall I sigh piteously, how long shall I weep ? I can no
more. |
I can write no more. What I have to say to thee 318
is inexhaustible. But however much I prolong it, none will
pity me, because my heart is burned by thee. If I complained
of thy deeds to the rocks, they would begin to weep
like me. I am pitied by stones, but I am not pitied by thy
heart. The very stones have more tenderness than thy
heart.
" Alas ! my
so pitiable
heart is like a stone in this : that
the steeliness of thy heart has shattered it. This (letter)
sends greeting to the fair of form with the heart of steel ;
send sgreeting to those jacinths 1 in which are strung twoand-thirty
seed 2 - pearls ; sends greeting to those narcissi 8
by reason of which I am continually sleepless ;
sends greet-
ing to that cypress 4 - tree which has destroyed my fame for
patience; sends greeting
to that full moon which has
eclipsed the moon of my fate ; sends greeting to that
fruitful tree which has dried up the branch of my fortune ;
sends greeting to that smiling rose for which I am ever
weeping and tearful-eyed ;
sends greeting to that powerful
1
Iagundii.e., Ramin's lips. B., 276, etc.
* Mart*v