Vis and Ramin

LXXV 885
CHAPTER I
RAMIN said :
"
Forsake me not, Vis ! Thy heart and tongue bear
not witness together. Thy heart cannot feel what thy
tongue speaketh. Thy discourse is like a little trumpet, 1
which makes a fearful noise and has nothing in it but pure
wind. Thy tongue speaks of satiety of me, but thy heart
cannot it. justify May God not be my helper if thou do
not indeed love me, and dost not indeed wish that I should
sit there by thy side. But now my fate has so turned
against me that it has become my foe, and makes thee
speak heartless words.
" Now I am dying frozen in the snow, and I can no
longer bear to be here. Now is that saying become true to
me: 'An ignorant friend is worse than a foe.' 2 Even if
one's own child is ignorant, one should get away from him.
I stand here in the snow and frost, and thou art comfort-
able in a warm |
house
(? scented with) musk, 3 and hast 886
begun to talk of a thousand vain things.
" This is not a time for comfort and luxury ! Thy con-
versation and thy beauty are equally inexhaustible ; while
as for me, death is thirsting for me through the keenness
of the air. It befits me to die in battle, when warriors are
in the mellay with me ; not thus in an unheard-of way and
miserably in the snow. Now, since thou dost not want me,
neither will I entreat thee. As long as I live friends will
not be lacking to me. I do not doubt of my being able
to live without thee. Be thou Moabad's, and let Moabad
one another's."
be thine. I go ; may God keep you
1 Dumbuli?=mt8ire naghara. Note the rhyme in the original.
3 PhoUkhurita upti'ha lynx's navel, 410.