The Knight in the Tiger's Skin, 1938
750. "My mourning neither adds to my grief nor surpasses it; I am afraid, though an envoy has no care for fear. Now Avt’handil bids thee farewell, he entreats, he wrangles not; (he says that) for him the world and life are nought without yon knight."
751. With timorous tongue he told him all he knew. He added, thereafter: "How canst thou know by such words in what a plight I saw him and how his tears flowed? Though you should let your wrath fall forthwith on me, you are just."
752. When the king had heard this he was wroth, he lost his senses, his colour whiled and he became terrible, he would have terrified onlookers. He cried: "What has made a madman of thee? Who else would have related this? It is the choice of a bad man to learn early what is evil.
753. "Traitor-like, thou hast told me of this as if it were a merry matter; what more could anyone do to me save slay me faithlessly, treacherously? Madman, how couldst thou employ thy tongue to dare to speak thus to me now! Such a madman as thou art is unworthy to be vizier or augh еlse.
754. "Should not a man spare his lord what is irksome, when he stupidly chatters stupid speech? Why were mine ears not deafened before hearing such a thing! If I kill thee, my neck must bear the responsibility for thy blood!"
755. Again he spake: "If thou hadst not now been sent hither by him, by my head! I had cut off thy head, let there be no doubt of this! Go, withdraw! Look at the mad, stupid, desperate, improper (fellow)! Brave word, brave man, brave the deed done by him!"
756. He bent down, he threw chairs, he hit the wall and shattered them; he missed his aim, but for his (the vizier's) sake he made them (thechairs)like adamant, not willowlike. "How couldst thou tell me of thegoing of him who plaited the aloe-tree branches!"(?). Hot tears hollowed out channels in the vizier's white cheeks (?).
757. The wretched vizier hurried away; he dared say no more. He crept off crestfallen like a fox; his wounded heart pains him. He comes in a courtier, he goes out gloomy, so (much) does the tongue dishonour him. A foe cannot hurt a foe as a man harms himself.
758. He said: "What more will God show me like unto my woes? Why was I deceived? Why was I darkened? Would that someone might enlighten me! Whoever announces anything so boldly to a sovereign, my days stand upon him too; how can he ever enjoy peace!"
759. The disgraced vizier went away in black luck. Gloomily, sad-faced, he said to Avt’handil: "What thanks can I give thee! Thanks to thee, what a courtier am I become! Alas! I have lost my peerless self by mine own fault!"
760. He begs the bribe and behaves sportively, albeit his tears were not dry. I marvel why he spends his time in making jokes,why he is not grieved in heart! (Quoth he): "He who gives not what hepromised quarrels with the Mourav . It is said: 'A bribe settles matters even in hell.'
761. "How he took the matter, what he said to me, it is not to be told by me. What evil, what stupidity, what idiocy, what madness (he attributed to me)! I myself am no longer worthy of the name of man; no longer have I sense.At this I marvel–why he slew me not; God must have given him patience.
762. "I knew too what I did; it happened not to me by mistake. I had pondered, I knew he would be wroth with me, therefore is my grief increased. None can avoid vengeance for a deed done with forethought. Still, for thy sake death seems joy to me; my woes are notin vain."
763. The knight replied: "It is wholly impossible for me not to depart. When the rose withers the nightingale then dies; he must seek a dewdrop of water, for the sake of this he must rove everywhere, and if he cannot find it what will he do or wherewith shall he soothe his heart?
764. "Without him I cannot bear to sit or lie. I will choose to roam like the beasts, with them to run. Why does he (Rostevan) desire me who am in such a state to fight his adversaries! It is better to have no man at all than to have a dissatisfied one.
765. "I will tell him once again; now, however angry the king may be, surely he can judge how my heart burns and flames. If he grant me not leave, I shall steal away when hope is gone. If I die, my portion and village will be uprooted."
766. When they had conversed, the vizier made a banquet befitting them; he played the host, gave fair gifts to the fair (guest), he enriched his attendants, both youths and greybeards. They parted; the knight went home as the sun was setting.
767. He (Avt’handil) sent a message (to the king) saying: "How can I give or bestow on thee that which befits thee? What return can I think of for the debts I owe thee? If I survive I shall die for thee; I shall make myself thy slave. I shall repay love with love, with a like weight."
768. How can I tell his peerlessness, valour, and praise him! He was a man fitting and worthy even of such a deed. Thus should service be, as much as lies in one's power (?). When a man is in trouble then needshe brother and kinsman.
