Vis and Ramin

LXXII 379
CHAPTER I
Vis said :
"
I know this that thou sayst ; but thy love will never
strike me down, and thy power cannot shake me. Gall
is never made from
never gives the taste of sugar ; paper
stone, nor wine from lemons. 1 Wax is not melted into
iron. An old enemy can never be made into a sincere
friend. I can never be justified by thy words, nor can I
be freed from trouble by seeing thee.
" Thy conversation, shameful to me, hurts me ; for
hitherto (thou) by whom I have been deceived and by
whom I have been pursued, long time have I remained
weeping because of thine absence, and likewise have had
joy in thy presence. And now I neither smile nor weep.
My heart is not pained in such a manner by thee that
2
thine elegant conversation can cure me. My heart is no
longer subject to love. Hitherto it was a fox, 8 and now it
is become a lion. 4 The evil thou hast done is seated in my
ear | in such a way that the road is blocked for listening to 380
more talk. Thou hast stopped mine ears ; how can I now
hearken to thy words ? The candle of love is extinguished.
I am satiated. I can no longer look, even from afar, on
youths 4 like thee.
"That heart has forsaken me which was my
foe and
plagued me. Everything has changed for me. Those eyes
with which I formerly gazed on thee, and those ears which
heard thy converse, are so changed, that while formerly
they thought to see some sun, they now look upon thee
1 Limo, timoni. * Ena~ma