Vis and Ramin

RAMIN RENOUNCES VIS 349
fickleness. The sign of fickleness and desertion appears to
be more with thee at present, for thou hast not remembered
thine oath, for thou didst no longer recognize me nor hear
name. How shouldst thou be so unmerciful and unkind
my
to me ? Oh !
it was not as if it were for thy sake, confident
in the hope of seeing thee, that I, thy former, self-sacrificing
lover, roamed for thee, but like a wayfarer, homeless on a
dark night, expecting to fall.
" And even if I have sinned, waving my ten fingers 1 to
thee in an oath and asking for pardon, why hast thou not
pitied me? For |
first thou madest me stand in the snow and 398
blast, and then didst follow with dishonourable baseness.
From excess of impiety thou couldst not soften thy heart,
thou desiredst my death in the snow, having become
merciless as an enemy. If I sinned somewhat, I did it not
to such an extent that I would not have pitied thee if thou
hadst been about to die. Thou art so perjured that thou
hast preferred the death of thy lover to his life. Oh ! even
if I had been slain by thee, what would it have availed thee,
or what joy would have remained to thee?
" Would that thy jealousy had not been such as it was !
But since it is so, it was certainly better for me to know the
hatred of my friend. Affliction is so far good when it shows
the line between foe and friend.
" Now, since I have found out how it is with thee, I am
thine open foe, thirsting for the blood of thy merciless
heart, since thou hast a less tender heart and a more
perjured eye
than beasts and birds. Let no one fall into
grief for love of thee, for it is unprofitable.
"
Now, thanks be to God for this : that He has shown me
such treatment from thee, that He has delivered from
passion, and has freed my soul from the merciless and
perjured. As long as I live my moon-faced, rose-named
Gul is enough for me to love, and I am enough for hej, for
until the day of death she shall be mine. Since God and
our Fate have joined us, it befits us to be content with each
other."
Cf. R., 228.