Vis and Ramin

I CHAPTER
LXXVII 395
THE heart-sore Ramin said :
" Faultless Vis, what thou hast done I have seen, what
thou hast said I have heard. Woe to that man who cannot
realize his own dishonour, he is despicable in his folly ; and
a very devil has made me do this thing, and I repent me
greatly if he has caused me to deceive in aught
travelled a long road, and God knows how many hardships
! I have
I have seen from the difficulty of the road and from cold !
I am not the sort of man who cannot realize his own
baseness. But thou wilt compensate what I have done,
and even more ; if not, for whose sake have I laid down
my greatness and wandered day and night for two months ?
I expected an advantage from this journey, and this vain
grief is all I have seen !
"I sat in repose in Koistan, at ease and merry. I had a
heart free 1 from thought, and I abandoned all this of mine
own free will. . . . I have deserved all this that I suffer
from thee. A foolish heart follows its own will. If thou
wouldst test anybody, give him a gem ;
if he will not have it,
2
give him a spark. Fate | gave to me a gem, and when I 896
cast it away, in the end it gave me in exchange a spark and
a pebble; and surely it has brought me this bad luck.
When I became hopeless through Fate, it became un-
'
Since it is so, I do not even know
gracious, and said :
thee!' . . . Thou hast done well in pursuing me; thou
hast accused me of a thousand treacheries 8 and trickeries. 4
I f 1 had not been such an idiot, I would not have been a
suitor so unhappy in such a place. Now go away, do not
beware of loving me.
seize my reins, go back ;
i Azati, 889, 401.
3 Trcloba.
847
2 Nabcrtscali? spangle.
4 Ablaoba (Arabic).