Vis and Ramin

BAMIN YEAENS FOB VIS 295
my present grief and the sighing of my heart for lack of
her, that I am outside all joy, that my heart is become
black as her eyes, and when I am | away from her I am 331
twisted like her perfumed hair.
"
Would that I knew what the cypress Mormed and sunfaced
ravisher of my heart will do to me ! . . . She will
become to me a bloody enemy on account of her heavy
grief. She will sacrifice me, she will dye the earth with
my blood, she will completely bring me to nought.
Through capacity for travail I am like the earth. In
hardness I am like iron, yet am I exhausted by excessive
distress. I seek means to save my life. I am not an ass
that I should bear burdens of earth till my death. I
will go away, I will search out the pearl from its shell. I
will go away and seek hope for my life from my soul.
"Who knows what griefs I have endured through
absence from my beloved? Who has seen such another
grief in the world that sight avails as a medicine? Now
my joy and melancholy are from her who is to me more
desirable than soul and life. The sight of her will revive
me, her converse will rejoice me, her embrace will immor-
talize me, and her caress will make me forget everything.
"
Why do I hide my need from such a physician, and as
long as I hide it so much the worse do I become in concealing
this grief.
I cannot quarrel with my heart longer.
any
I will make known its secret everywhere. I am
drowning in the whirlpool 2 of separation. Thus the prayer
of the heart of the afflicted one is fulfilled. I will go, I
will beseech Vis. Surely she will be tender to me, and
wipe the rust from her heart.
" But I fear that since I have become so ill without Vis
I may die before I see her. But this | seems
to me joy : 332
that in seeking her I shall be buried a corpse on the road,
and every man will know my story and my sufferings for
love. Whatever traveller or wanderer passes over my
tomb will sit down a little, and I shall be pitied. When
they learned my story they would beg forgiveness of God
Saro. Moreva, R., 1124, 1281.