Vis and Ramin

VIS AWAITS RAMIN 805
detail the news from Ramin : how mad he was for love of
her, how he was faring to see her and longing for her, so
that his present love could not be compared with his
former love. And he had as a proof Ramin's letter. As
Ramin had done to her letter, so did Vis to Ramin's letter.
Sometimes she laid it on her mouth, sometimes on her
breast. Until Ramin's coming she had the letter as a
comforter, and Adina as a dissipator of grief.
The next day she went into the bath, adorned herself,
donned her |
garment of pearls, set the crown upon her head, 84$
and shone more than the sun. The moon was darkened in
heaven by her beauty, her hairs were Ethiop 1 hosts, and her
lips balm for the sick of a thousand cities, and her face the
increaser of soul to young men and the ravisher of lovers'
reason. Her hair was like a musky rope. 2 As she herself
was beautiful, so was she fairly adorned, desirable and to be
wished for as Paradise by every human being.
She, such
a peerless luminary, 8 was become captive to love, and her
silvery form was become golden ; desirable, beautiful, and a
heart-ravisher was she. But ceaselessly she was burned by
the fire of love, and her patience was spent in her haste to
see her lover. Staying on the roof, her eye was on every
side, and she jumped about like a seed 4 (of corn) on a hot
5
dish ; she could not rest in one place. She was weary of
solitude, and maddened by the absence of her lover. Her
heart became the shelter of a host of woes. She forsook
not Moabad's tower 6 on the roof. Night was falling, and he
whom she awaited came not. It was sleep-time, 7 and she
slept not ; it was as if her couch under her had become
made of thorns and burrs. 8 At cock-crow she fell asleep
for a little. The same moment she woke up and shrieked
like one attacked by an enemy. The nurse took hold of
her, and said :
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