Vis and Ramin

310 V1SEAMIANI
same whom thou sawest, and art thou no longer she ? Can
it be that thou art grieved at the joy of my foes ?
wouldst grieve at my death, be not angry with me ;
If thou
be calm,
be reconciled to me, do not embitter pleasant joy, be not
an oath-breaker and perjurer, let not thee and my heart be
united to slay me, burn me not with the fire of merciless-
ness. Alas for all my hopefulness
! for I have sacrificed
myself for love of thee. I have sowed love in the garden
of youth, I have caused my life to fade, I have watered
mine eyes with tears, I could not sleep one night and I
could not rest one day, and I have become exhausted in
following after it (love). When spring came, in it bloomed
the violet, the rose, the lily, and the narcissus. Many kinds
of fruit came forth on the trees. The garden was fair as the
good fortune of the happy, in it birds began to chirrup,
they bathed in the brook, I built a strong wall (round the
garden). Now the winter of abandonment is come, the
wind of inconstancy, and the cloud of drought, the season
349 of misfortune; |
that
garden is laid waste. No longer is
there that fruit, no longer those roses, no longer rivulet,
nor meadow, nor wall ! Foes and enviers have uprooted,
riven, cut the trees, they have broken down the wall, and
frightened away
the birds. Woe to such a time ! for our
1
love is like a clay vessel, not a golden one, for when it
breaks it becomes worthless. When heart was taken away
from heart, and friend from friend, love disappeared, and
grief was added to grief. Now our foes rejoice. Would that
Now our slanderers
God might make our foe like unto me !
are freed from troubles, they have no longer wherewithal
to slander us. We no longer need an intermediary, no
longer a keeper of secrets ; neither does the nurse see
neither does my heart hurt me, nor is
trouble, nor thou ;
Moabad displeased. No one is to blame but me ;
for this
reason the fate of none is like my fate, for this I complain
that I am always a coward. But for this I had not been
thus unhappy, my heart could not have enslaved me thus
and betrayed me. Whoever hearkens to the devil 2 will be
1 Cetzi, 843.
2 Eshma a demon.