Vis and Ramin

342 VISRAMIANI
heart, I said unto thee, change thy !
road. Aha there
is a pitfall 1 in my path ! . . . tongue, I counselled thee,
too, declare not the hidden thing
! Doubtless I looked
in a wretched plight, for when thou madest known to
Vis the secret of thy heart, she prolonged her wilfulness
and pettishness until nothing pleasant remained. heart,
it had been better to have kept quiet. Lo ! now I tell
thee, and will it not be of use to thee ? . . . A certain
man rightly said that patience is a good thing even for
birds."
Fate is so deceitful that passion had subjected Vis and
Eamin. Fate makes sport of every man, and turns the
inclinations and natures of men as a conjurer 2 turns a
(glass) bead.3 Sometimes he is merry and sometimes sad,
sometimes friendly, sometimes hostile, and persecuted by
the jealous. If indeed it were not so with men, no one
could caress with great appetite ; none could become
390 enamoured of anybody, nor give himself up to grief and
death. And if they were not deceived in this thing, | Fate
could not have so turned as it did in the case of Vis and
Ramin. After an unexampled affection there befell an equally
unparalleled, merciless abandonment one of the other.
When the hopeless Eamin went away and Vis had gone
up again, she began to repent and grieve that she had not
let Ramin in. She wept, she beat her head, face, and
breast without pity; she wailed, she lamented 4 like a
mourner. 5
She murmured at her stupidity; tears of
blood flowed from her eyes and ran in streams. She beat
her heart on the stone. The face of her who had become
She sighed like a lyre, 6 and said :
stony became ashy.
"
Why do I slay myself with mine own hands ? What
have I done? Why have I become weary of my life?
Why have I purchased mine own grief with my folly?
Now, who indeed will extinguish the fire of my heart?
* Ormo, 324.
2 ThvaWha mktzeveli. 3
4 Moat'hlcmida chanted. B., 219, 819, 988.
6 Djiris up'hali lord of grief, chief mourner.
6 Changibaxp, 427. B., 101, 120, etc.
Mdzivi, 299.