The Knight in the Tiger's Skin, 1938

194. Avt’handil descended the mountain, he crossed river and woods, he put his steed to a gallop towards the plain;the murmur of the water and trees annoys him;his power (arms) and pride were spent; the crystal field with the jetty growth was beautiful (i.e., his face was beautified by the growth of his beard).

195. He resolved to return, he sighed and groaned; he turned towards the plain; he traced out the road with his eyes; for a month he has seen no human being anywhere; there were terrible wild beasts, but he hunted them not.

196. Though Avt’handil was become wild with heart groaning and sighing, yet he wished to eat, after the wont of Adam's race; he killed game with his arrow, with arm longer than Rostom's; he alighted on the edge of the reedy ground and kindled a fire with a steel.

197. He let his horse pasture while he roasted the meat. He saw six horsemen coming towards him. He said: They look like brigands; else what good is to be found? No other human being has ever been here."

198. He took his bow and arrow in his hand, and went gaily towards them. Two bearded men were leading their beardless brother, his head was wounded, his heart had swooned from loss of blood; they wept and grieved, his poor spirit was almost fled.

199. He called out: "Brothers, who are ye? I took you for brigands." They replied: "Be calm, help us and put out the fire; if thou canst not help us, add grief to our grief, and make it complete; weep with us who need pity, scratch thy cheeks too."

200. Avt’handil approached; he spoke to the men with the grieved hearts. They told him their story, speaking with tears: "We are three brothers, for this we shed bitter tears; we have a large fortified town in the region of Khataet’hi.

201. "We heard of good hunting ground, we went forth to the chase, countless soldiers accompanied us, we dismounted on the bank of a stream; the hunting pleased us, for a month we went not away; we killed wild beasts without measure in the plain, on the mountain and on the ridge.'

202. "We three brothers shamed the archers with us, so we three vied still one with another: 'I kill best, I am better than thou,' thus each pushed his claim with words; we could not manifest the truth, we wrangled, we strove with one another (none wanted to be last).

203. "To-day we sent away the soldiers loaded with stags’ hides. We said among ourselves: 'Let us judge truly who of us is mightier with his arm.' We remained alone, we were private, we killed in our own sight, we shot not before onlookers.

204. "We had three armour-bearers (squires) with us; we ordered the soldiers to go away, mistrusting nought; we hunted over plain, through wood and den, we slaughtered the wild beast, and not even a bird flew up.

205. "Suddenly there appeared a knight, morose and gloomy of visage, seated on a black horse, black as Pegasus; his head and form were clad in a panther's skin with the fur outside, and beauty such as his has ne’er been seen by man before.

206. "We gazed upon his rays, we scarce could support the brightness, we said: 'He is a sun on the earth; we cannot say (there is a sun) in heaven.' We wished to seize him, we were venturesome and tried; this is the cause of our sighs, moans, weeping.

207. "I, the eldest, earnestly begged the man from the younger, my next brother asked for his horse as a keepsake, this one only asked leave to conquer him. We granted him this as his due. As we went towards him he came forward unchanged, calmly and in beauty.

208. "Ruby mingled with crystal beautified the pale roses (of his cheeks). He withered up tender thoughts towards us, he explained nothing, neither did he let us go, he showed not any consideration for us at all, with his whip he ripened us who had spoken tartly to him.

209. "We gave him over to our youngest brother, we elders kept back, he seized upon him (and said): 'Stand!' Thus he spake to him with his tongue. He (Tariel) held no sword in his hand, so we moved away; he struck him on the head with his whip, we saw the blood flow indeed.

210. "With a stroke of his whip he cleft his head thus, like a corpse he became lifeless, like earth he was brought to earth; thus he humbled, levelled with the ground, him who had been audacious to him. Before our eyes he went away, bold, severe and haughty.

211. "He turned not back again; he went away quietly and without haste. Lo! there he rides–look! like the sun and moon." The weeping ones joylessly showed him far off to Avt’handil; there only appeared his black steed carrying along that sun.

212. Behold, it befell Avt’handil that his cheeks need no longer be covered with snow from tears, since he had not passed so much time abroad in vain; when a man attains the thing wished for, when he must find what he sought, then need he no longer remember past woes.

213. He said: "Brothers, I am a wanderer without a place. To seek that knight I have gone far from the home of my upbringing. Now from you I have learned what it was by no means easy to discover. May God never again give you cause to grieve.