Vis and Ramin

294 VISRAMIANI
his face was bathed in tears. He looked like a corpse at
the merrymaking.
His wife Gul sat before him, to whom all the beauty of
her face was become hideous. Her form was straight as
an arrow, and her face was in fulness like the moon, and
roses bloomed on it. Whoever saw her gave her his heart,
and at sight of her fire burned up his heart.
But her thusness was as useless to Eamin as musk to a
corpse. Only his body was hers, but no longer his heart.
He sighed from moment to moment, and tears rose in his
eyes. His heart trembled ; he had no power to talk, and
all joy became distasteful to him because of his longing for
" No one
880 Vis. | He
could look on nobody, and thought :
knows what is in my
heart." He asked his heart with
tears, and said :
"What is more pleasant than the union of lovers?
This enjoyment and royal banquet are so bitter to me that
I no longer seem to myself to live. Now, my wife 1 is
thinking that I am sitting merry, and she does not know
in what a state I am for lack of Vis, or how I burn, and
how the thought of her has come back to me increased.
Vis thinks that I have forgotten her. She thinks :
' Kamin is well without me. He has forgotten his love
for me. He is merry without me. He has forgotten his
oath to me, and I am forgotten.' How can she have regard
for me while thinking thus, or what promises can I who
have forgotten soul, life-giving love, and religion
Who can convince her of this my condition after
offer?
such a
short time. Or what answer can I give to God and to
her, since I have given the heart that was her own to
another ?
" Stone me, lovers, and take bloody vengeance on me !
Drink my blood as I drink mine own, since I have proved
myself a traitor to a trusting heart, and by my perjury I
have caused every giver of a heart to fear. Now pity me,
miserable, repentant, I adjure you by God, since she thinks
that her Ramin is no longer what he was. She knows not
1 Var., Vis."