Vis and Ramin

440 I
CHAPTEK
LXXXVII
RAMIN SLAYS ZARD
RAMIN thus spoke with entreaty to Zard :
" Haste not always to be at enmity with me and to slay
me. God knows I desire not that harm should happen to
thee from me. Lay down thy sword and let me alone. I
am thy younger brother ; do evil to nobody else nor to
thyself."
When Zard heard the voice of Ramin, his eyes were
darkened with enmity, he could not hearken, and began to
insult Ramin and reproach his ill conduct. He seized his
sword to strike. Ramin sheltered himself with his shield 1
;
the shield was cut through. Then Ramin struck Zard,
clave his head and arm, and dyed the castle with his blood.
On each roof 2 men lay slain by tens, and in every quarter 3
a heap of corpses lay. Many in fear of death leaped down
from the castle, but not thus were they saved from death.
Many struggled for life, but, nevertheless, they survived not.
it would have
441 Even if it had been day, for the |
been night and darker than night. It was not yet cock-
crow, and Zard was completely spent. Fate and his planet,
however much they had given Ramin his heart's desire, had
not hitherto burned him so much as by the taking away of
his brother. However much one may try Fate, it is always
thus, that its
4
joy is not without pain. Its rose is thorny
and its joy is troublous ; love is mischance, and its profit is
loss.
1
Daraia, 442.
2 Bani.
3 Ubani district, street, 122. B., 465.
4 Joy and grief inseparable, 195, 341. Cf. E., 621, etc.
382
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