Vis and Ramin

VIS'S DREAM OF VIRO 75
11
What sort of time and day is this when, so to say, the
fire of patience is burning ? Every day as a new day comes
a new woe comes from the planets upon me the fault of
this Marav, or of the stars, or of the unjust act of the
planet itself. This country is not Marav, it is the melting-
dark well :
pot of my body; this is no city, it is a great deep,
these halls are adorned and painted like Paradise, it is
pleasant, but to me it is dark and painful like hell. By day
my grief augments, and by night my misfortune. From
moment to moment I am worse and worse. My fate is so
hateful to me that it seems not to me that I live, and even
hope
of life itself is cut off from me. I saw the face of Yiro
as in a vision ;
he was as he were sitting on his horse going
out to the chase, a sword girded on his loins ; in his hand
he held a lance, and he was making good sport. Cheerily
he reined in his horse when he approached, and he
eulogized l me much, and thus pleasantly he addressed me :
' How is it, thou beloved and soul of thy brother, that thou
art in a strange land? Why art thou, for lack of me, in
the hands of the foe ?' Then I saw him as if he were lying
at my side, he embraced me, he kissed my mouth and eyes,
and he made whole my wounded heart. As he was speaking
to me last night it is as if I hear his voice even now, even
now his perfume is present to me. Since my planet shows
me so much grief, I do not by any means wish to live. As
long as I live this is enough of grief for me, | for my soul is
a corpse, and joyless, though my limbs are alive. Thou
thyself seest, nurse, that in this city of Marav there is no
other creature of God as fair as Yiro."
In this manner she spoke, and tears of blood flowed from
her eyes. The nurse laid her hand on her head, and the
nurse spoke thus :
"Ah ! light of thy mother's eyes! let thy nurse die in thy
presence ; may God not let me look ! upon thy grief I hear
thy command, and I am heavy as iron and copper.
;ve not so much, embitter not in vain this sweet world.
> Kcbashematkha.ll.lie.