THE SECOND LETTER OF VIS TO RAMIN 259 "Look once again upon my face, for I doubt if thou ever sawest gold yellow like it. Though thou art my foe and deadly enemy, still thou wouldst pity me if thou sawest me. Though thou art a forsaker and fickle, when thou sawest my woes thou wouldst be grieved and oppressed. "They tell me I am sick, and that I should seek a physician,1 who would do me some good. I am slain by my doctor and physician.1 My physician has betrayed me and deceived me; by his treachery am I fallen sick! As long as I am thus pitiable I will seek thee as a remedy. Nought can avail me save the sight of thee. My heart can find no pleasure while thou art absent. My hope in God and Fate is not cut off, that they will show me my bright sun again. If the sun of thy face come, the night of my woe will be illumined. I am pitiable to my former foe, and surely I shall have thy pity. I have not sinned against thee in anything more grievous than I have done to my foes; and if thou readest this letter and dost not now pity me, when thou knowest my woes, thou art wholly 292 impious and a deserter." CHAPTER L THE THIRD LETTER OF VIS TO RAMIN "O INEVITABLE object of my thoughts, when thou didst depart and go from me, thou didst take with thee my heart and reason. So I entreat thee, only this I ask: since thou hast gone from me, why didst thou desire a hostage1 from me? For thy sake I have wholly given my soul, heart, rest, and patience. How indeed can I be a seeker of joy without these? My heart unwavering desires thee as the sick desire health. It cannot seek the love of any other. The heart which desires life from thee, how can it forget thee? As many as are the griefs it has seen from thee, so much art thou beloved like life itself. Though thou hast behaved impiously to me in folly and forsaken me, I cannot so be separated from thee. Now I think upon thee more, now I love thee more; and I cannot reproach thee even for the ill thou hast done. I will pursue and entreat thee until thou perceivest my righteousness and thine unrighteousness. Since thou art fickle, why shouldst thou reproach me for constancy of heart? My heart is like 293 copper2 in water, and lies immovable on account of | fidelity of love for thee. Love cannot be removed from my heart, for it is firm like stone and iron; and if it were not thus weighty, then how, alas! could I bear so much grief and anger from thee? For because of thine ungodliness I am weary of life, as also of thine absence. The wine of love which I drank from thy lips, with it I am drunk with incurable drunkenness. "When I look upon the sun or the moon, they remind 2 Rvali-bronze, R., 157, 547. 1 Mdzevali. THE THIRD LETTER OF VIS TO RAMIN 261 me of thy face; and when I look upon an arrow or a cypress,1 a thousand times I do homage because of their likeness to thy form. Wherever I find a rose, I kiss it for its resemblance to thy cheeks. At the hour of dawn, weeping and sighing, when the breeze wafts the fragrance of violets and roses to me, I am comforted, for I say: Surely my love cometh, and his perfume strikes me? When I fall into a slumber,2 I also gaze upon thy face. I find joy in this: sometimes I complain of thy deeds to thee thyself, sometimes I bewail thine absence to thee. When I sleep thou art friendly to me. When grief is added upon grief to me and I awake, why art thou mine enemy? Since thou showest love to me when I am asleep, when I awake why dost thou cause me to suffer? In dreams thou art pitiful; when I awake why art thou so pitiless and soul-bereaving? Waking, melancholy I beseech thee. I call upon thee, and thou comest not, so that I must cry and weep. And when I fall asleep, ungracious thou comest and seest me, so that all the more impatiently I may desire thee. When thou wert near, that hour, and now, though but a moment in a dream, equally they rejoice me. Since thou wentest away darkness and light are become alike to me. Day and night are become one. Of thee only the image has remained in my heart, | and of absence only 294 the grief of sickness. I so greatly desire thee that when I dream of thee I am contented and thank God. "But my content is like a bird caught in a net,* which has no more strength. I am like one cursed by my parents (with the words): May God put far from thee whatever thou seekest.' I am become so from love that even to dream of thee seems a joy to me. So afflicted, alas! is my heart that this even seems a glory to it, and it desires sleep. When I was near thee, then I was pampered,5 not expecting this woe. On account of that I did not sleep, and now I do not sleep because of the flow of blood from mine eyes by reason of separation. Behold! When did 1 Saro, 310. R., 40, 229, etc. 2 Mimelulnes, R., 139, 377, 1193. the repose of sleep fall to my lot-then when I was in comfort,1 and now that I am in tribulation? Now, the days that I passed in thy love are nought! When I sowed thy love, I watered it so much from mine eyes with sleeplessness that from my heart it came up to my head. My heart is like an oyster-shell, in which thy love's seed is sown, and no one can easily draw it forth. Surely God will not forsake me. And when thou seest me, mayst thou be abashed; while I, because of my constancy, shall be unabashed and long-tongued,2 not having suffered in vain so many griefs from thee." | CHAPTER LI THE FOURTH LETTER OF VIS TO RAMIN "TELL me, O two weeks' moon, why thou hast forsaken me, wherefore thou hast hastened to become my deadly foe? Though thine every wish befits thee, I, not only in this world, but also in eternity, desire no joy save thee. Thus they say to me: O Vis, sigh not! Why art thou thus spent1 for one fickle lover? A passion for a man is not forgotten save by love for another, and there are better that thou hast not tried.' Those who say this to me know not that, however pure rosewater may be, to the thirsty spring water is of more avail. To him who has been struck in the liver by a snake, treacle 2 is better suited than red candy. However sweet sugar may be, to him who is poisoned with poison, an antidote is better. Since I see thee no more, in thine absence all who desire me look eagerly on me. Why should I seek another consolation for myself, or to whom should I give my heart instead of thee, from whom I have kept no part of myself, so have I belonged to thee? None shall be attached to me in thy place, and I shall have no gain to my heart from another. If I have no longer the power of my hand, however many pearls and jewels I may put on, it is unprofitable to me. Thou art the sun, and, sunless, my day has no light. 295 "O chief of hosts, when I was near thee I was the 296 oyster-shell, and thou wert the pearl. It (the pearl) was taken out it (the shell) has no longer honour; so no one Gasula, 300. R., 750, 1125. 3 Tabarazi. 4 The word for " poison" and "antidote" is the same (tsamali), thus exhibiting the homeopathic idea. 2 T'heriaci. |