"O hard heart, arise and set out, grieve me no more henceforth, and do not anger thyself. Do not be angry with one who will trust thee and miss thee to the end. Do not stay with her (Gul), because thou knowest the bitterness of life for her without thee. Thou shouldst have more pity on her who is most thine own (property). Come, for we shall be as pleasant henceforth as knowledge to the soul and light to the eyes. Thine absence is a hard rock, and nought save the sight of thee will break it. I cannot bear to be without thee. I shall not recall the past, and thou shalt not mention the cause. It matters not that thou hast forsaken me, and hast lopped the tree of love; again thou wilt graft it with unity of heart, the fruit even will come better forth on the grafting. Begin to seek love from the beginning, and be not false to my heart, that God may not hold thee guilty.” CHAPTER LV THE EIGHTH LETTER OF VIS TO RAMIN But 308 "O TEARFUL clouds of spring, come and learn from me to weep. But if but once ye rain like my tears the earth will be laid waste. Such a stream of tears ever pours from me, and yet I am ashamed that I have not so many as I would. In this grief a hundred times as many tears befit me. I will be emptied in soul.1 When sometimes I pour forth blood and sometimes water, when I have no longer these two, with what else can I afflict myself save plucking out mine eyes, for mine eyes themselves desire a sight of thee, my tongue (desires) converse with thee, and mine ears to hearken to thy words. Since I have not even one of these, what shall I lay hold on, or why do I wear out my life with weeping? Perchance I shall make the earth a sea, I will sigh so that I crumble away stone. I am thankful to my tears that they do not forsake me afflicted, they have not fled from me like patience, they are not bloody to me like my heart. At such a time lovers are necessary to a man! Since I am weary of all, if that patience should once not be mine, and if it be my fate to have it no longer, even that would slay me. My heart | has been seized by mis- 309 chance, and therefore patience says to it: I am a branch of Paradise, why art thou planted in hell? O heart, thou art like hell, full of fire and smoke, therefore have I thus quickly fled from thee. O heart, life is become hateful to thee, why dost thou complain to me of lack of patience? At all times patience is a glory; but thus, from love, endurance by the afflicted is rather a shame. Since I have not the power of 1 ? for sulad read srulad-completely. patience, I will no longer strive for it nor desire it. Leave me, that I may die in impatience. "O joy, thou art passed from me; without thee what can patience on my part be called, or what is its name? Should I be patient without thee, then it would be inconstancy and abandonment on my part. I belong to thee soul and self, and thou knowest, by thy God, whatever thou wilt that thou mayst do with me. To that lover who is beloved of some one a thousand souls and lives seem nothing. Thus should be the love of man and the origin of passion. Why should my woe be increased by thine anger? Pity befits, not illwill. How very desirable seems to me that time when we were together and rejoiced. May the good fortune of my joy awake, and may the hope of my foes be diminished. The way of Fate is ever thus, for it cuts pleasure with the sword of enmity. When suddenly the light of mine eyes departed, from that time mine eyes weep blood. I have sighing as a consolation, and sorrow has taken up its abode in my heart. By my weeping and sighing we ourselves are burned.2 Rejoice us with tranquillity. We have seen lovers in the land, but none afflicted, pitiful, and restless like me. 310 How should I have repose, since my fair lover has thus 3 forsaken me, for he has left me piteously alone like a shepherd's fire in the plain? He came no more hither to me; he left me alone, despised, as caravaners leave an inn.4 It did not suffice him to leave me and go away. He married a wife and forsook me. "Now, if I sigh, I have reason for it, since this has befallen me from a lover in whom I trusted. I entrusted my heart to thee in confidence, and I have seen nought but perjury from thee. How could thy heart cause me such grief and pain? Did I not love this my nurse as my mother? Did not she look upon thee as all the world to her? Did not thy form seem to her a cypress ?5 Did she not rejoice in thee? Did not the sight of thee seem to her hope and 1 Kheli the function, habit, custom, behaviour. 5 Saro, 293. THE EIGHTH LETTER OF VIS TO RAMIN 277 power? Thou didst insult her on my account. Beautiful one, even this reproach is enough that thou shouldst be called evil-doer by all who know. What would anyone say who read this our letter, and learned of this which has befallen us? Would they not say this: that she was so good, and forsaken because she sought so much love from a fickle man? And, doubtless, they would say of thee: he is such a bad man and evil-doer, because he acquired her for himself, and has thus abandoned his own. "I have finished this letter, though I have not told a hundredth part of my complaint. I have great complaint against Fate, one thousandth part of which I cannot tell. My complaint cannot have an end, and by this discourse my desire will not be fulfilled. Before I had told thee all this an evil weariness would have overcome me. I will go and entreat Him Who Himself sees. I will go to the door of His palace, which needs nor chamberlain1 nor | porter; I will 311 entreat light from Him, and not from thee, and will seek comfort from Him, not from thee. That door which He has closed He also will open to me. I am cut off from hope from all, but not from Him, for save Him I have no strength." 1 Edjibi, R., 141. CHAPTER LVI THE NINTH LETTER OF VIS TO RAMIN "I HAVE a heart full of fire and a soul full of smoke, a form wasted to the thinness of a hair, and a face tinted yellow as gold. Every night I lay my face on the ground before God, and thus I bewail my fate: my crying mounts to heaven; the stars hear my sighing. I weep like a cloud in spring; I cry out like a rock partridge.1 I am washing out with my tears the darkness of night. I make the earth into clay as far as the back of the fish upon which the world stands, and I am agitated like the sea by the wind. I tremble like a willow1 in the breeze. I sigh so pained in heart that the moon loses its way in the sky for pity of me. 312 So much smoke rises from my sad heart | that from mountain to mountain dark smoke and cloud lies. 6 3 "Thus shamed, oppressed, wretched, woe-stricken, with weeping eyes and sallow face, dusty lips, I am saddened, and say 'O Creator, without beginning, merciful, Autocrat, mighty and meek! Thou art the strength of the weak, Thou art the Help and Succour of the poor and oppressed. Save Thee, there is no one to whom I can entrust my secret. I beseech Thine aid. Thou knowest how I am afflicted. Thou knowest how my tongue is tied. I entreat Thee, and from Thee I seek solace. Save my soul from the abyss.7 Lift from my heart the fetters of 1 Cacabi, 205, 296. 2 Var., davst'hkhri (dug out) for davať'hikhheb. 3 The Georgian popular belief is that the earth stands upon the back of a fish. 4 Tirip'hi, 23, 36, 92, 349. 5 Niavi, 318. 6 Nebiero. |