The knight in the panther's skin, 1979
20. I speak of love's highest form- elevated, pure and heavenly, Eloquence weakens when the tongue attempts to speeak of such love. It uplifts to heaven the soul of thhose who endure love's anguish. A lover, therefore, must know how to endure and bear these afflictions.
21. Even a discerning mind cannot comprehend that love, Though the toungue grow tired or ears of the hearer weary. I speak of the lower passions of man who when not lustfully kissing Strives to imitate love but only faints from afar.
22. In the arabic tongue a lover is called a madman Because non-fulfilment and futile longing for her. Some, though exhausted , feel nearness to God as their souls soar upward. Others, pray to low passions, fly from one fair maiden to another.
23. Beauty befits a lover like unto the sun on high. He must have youth and leisure, be generous, wealthy and wise, Patient, intelligent and eloquent, the mightiest among the mighty. If devoid of all these qualities a lover is not a true lover.
24. Love is sacred and tender, hard to know or define. It is not kindred to lust; it is something beyond it - divine. Love is one thing ; lust another; in no way do they mingle. Between true love and lust lies an impregnable boundary.
25. He who loves should be constsnt, never lewd nor faithless. Absence from her he loves should wring sigh upon sigh from his heart. He must be true to her though she frown upon him anger. I hate lover who seeks only hugging and lusty kissing.
26. A lover does not long for one today and another tomorrow. He cannot endure Love's parting or absence from her whom he worships. Such sport is shamefull, base, more like the trifling of boys. The lover is he who suffers the whole world's woes and sorrows.
27. There is a love-noblest- which reveals not its woes but conceals them . The lover seeks solitude for when alone he bestows all his thoughts upon love. Thus his fainting, dying, burning, are all from afar; He may face the wrath of his beloved, yet must he fear and revere her.
28. A lover must never reveal his love but keep it hidden, Nor should he basely sigh and put his loved one to shame; Nowhere should he show his love, nor reveal it to any man. Enduring woes and burning in fire for her sake should be joy.
29. Only a madman would trurt the man who noises his love abroad. By this hi makes her suffer, by this he suffers himself. How can he glorify her if he shames her with surfeit of words? That would only profane the love that she cherishes for him.
30. It makes me wonder to think there are man who make a show of their love. Why add pain to a heart, already wounded by love? If they no love for here than why do they hide they hatred? But an evil man loves an evil word more than the soul.
31. Judge not severely the tears of lover; tears are his due. Weeping and solitude befit him and the roaming of plains and forests. When absent from her his thoughts should be of her whom he worships, But when among men it is better he conceal his love within him.
STORY OF ROSTEVAN, KING OF THE ARABS
32. Rostevan ruled in Arabia, a monarch exalted and mighty, Fortunate, noble, farseeeing, wise in council and judgment; The hosts he commanded were countless, he, the invincible warior; His speech was fluent and gracious, his bounty and wisdom boundless.
33. He had one fair doughter, bright as the sun in its glory, Shedding radiant beams, revishing all who beheld her. Hearts and minds were enslaved, all bowed down to her beauty. Even the sage and the poet were deprived of speech in her presence.
34. Tinatin, fairest of maidens, grew to be fearest of woman; The sun itself in the sky paled above her in envy. Rostevan summoned his viziers graciously ranged tham before him; Proud, majestic, yet mild, he wanted their judgment and counsel.
35. "We are assambled", he said,”to discuss and counsel together. The sun of my days is sat, a moonless night is before me. The full-blown rose must scatter the face of the earth with its petals. But the bud of the brunch unfolds, filling the garden with fragrance.
36. "Mine is the burden of age, sorest affliction of mortals; The footsteps of death draw near me and I must yield up my spirit. Light can no longer exist when the shadow of night overtakes it. Take for your sovereign, my doughter, whom even the sun cannot rival."
37. The viziers answered :”O king! Speak not of ages and darkness! You are still mighty and wise, your subjects still adore you! Even the rose that is withered sheds perfume surpassing all flowers. Does not the rising star worship the moon that is waning?
38. "Speak not of death , O king! Your blossom retains its perfume! One bad counsil is better then a hundred good counsels from others. You have done well to unload your heart of its onerous burden; Shee who out-shines the sun we name our monarch and ruler.
