Vis and Ramin

70 VISBAMIANI
sea by thy prowess, make the Mtcuari 1 to flow in the
meadows, bring forth fruit from stone, raise a new world
and place earth upon her hair by such sorcery and power
yet this will not avail thee in the matter of Vis. She
will love thee and thou shalt find her heart then only
when on the branch of a fir-tree 2 dates 3 grow. Who would
venture to convey |
such a message to her, or who would tell
78 her such things? Thou knowest not the wondrousness of
her humour, from which she herself always suffers. If I
had even the courage of a thousand lions, I would not tell
her this. At whatever time she learns this, and I tell her,
she would be angry at me and deprive me of her favour. 4
Thou thyself wilt not venture to do it, nor would it be
fitting to thee that I should remain insulted in my old age.
My pupil in her haughtiness raises her head to heaven, and
will not in her pride vouchsafe a word to the sons of men.
She will not be affrighted either by a great thing nor will
she be seduced by great wealth. Now she herself is very
melancholy, by her loneliness and by
strange
the fact that in a
land she is isolated and removed far from her
country ; at every human joy she is affrighted and timid.
Sometimes she pours tears from her eyes and blood from
her cheeks, sometimes she cries out against her constella-
tion and Fate. When she thinks on (var., was separated
from) her brother and parents, like an aloe 6 on a fire, she is
burnt. She curses the day of her beginning and birth,
saying :
'
Why have I been born so unhappy ?' Shahro
entreated her fervently from God, and with a thousand
luxuries brought her up. Now she sighs unceasingly, and
weeps for her exile and all that has happened therein.
Before her who dares to mention thee and this thy miser-
able message? Though I had more tongues
than the
rain, I would not sacrifice one of them for this embassy,
and command me not on such an errand ; for, as they say,
the head knoweth not how to walk like the feet."
1
Kura, river on which Tiflis is built, 56, 171.
2 Ph'idchui. 3
Khurma, 153.
4 Piris taqali, 95 = Persian abru = * ater of the face.
5 Alva, 114. Var., alava (? hay).