Vis and Ramin

422 |
CHAPTER
LXXXIII
WHEN Vis was separated from her longed-for Eamin, joy
and gladness grew weary of her. The rose had always
been a sun, and now it became a moon ; like it, she grew
yellow, and she gave up eating and drinking ; she could
not spare a moment from Eamin and news of him. She
scratched her face, senseless with grief. She said to the
nurse :
" Seek a means for my life and for my
union with
Kamin, so that my departed friend may return. nurse,
have pity on my unbearable condition ; think upon my
youth and mine upbringing by thee. I cannot endure to
be without him. Hearken to my tale, and I will tell thee
everything without concealment, and thou shalt understand.
When thou didst show me Ramin, then with hatred
to Moabad and his evil doing towards me my heart froze
towards him and I gave my heart to Ramin in such
childishness and folly that it is no longer in my power.
423 Now I am mad and senseless. |
In lack of heart I am like
one drunken. Be not astonished at my state, do not mock
me. Death pleases me more than his absence. Formerly
there was only that one thing, but now both death and the
thought of separation afflict me. One fire burns both thee
and me, nurse : mine in the heart which I cannot extin-
guish, thine in the bosom. With water, fire is a coward ;
but instead of being extinguished by my tears, it is increased
more and more ; I pour water upon the fire of my heart.
Who has ever seen water making fire burn ? Last night it
was as if I lay on thorns 1 and iron, so little rest had I.
1
Ecali, E., 857-8.