The knight in the panther's skin, 1979
1273. “Twice you have saved me from foes, from the sorcerers and from your monarch. Now I am held here by force in a lofty, impregnable tower. Myriad hosts of invincible warriors guard and surround me. Alasl unrelenting fate has frustrated my plans and desires.
1274. What can I write, what news do I know thus held a close captive'!' Dulardukht, queen of the Kajis and her numerous hosts are still absent, But I am guarded by armies of dauntless, unparalleled warriors. Therefore, my Patman, believe me: no force under heaven can save me.
1275. “He who has come to seek me will in vain endeavour to free me Though he may suffer and burn, though his zeal and desire consume him. O, how I envy that knight for his eyes have gazed on my loved one. Pity my life for, alas, deprived of that sun I langUish.
1276. “True I did not tell you my story but hid it from you, For it was torture to me and my tongue grew dumb in the trial. I entreat you to beg my beloved to have pity and come not to seek me. Write to him, now. I beseech you. Send him at once a message.
1277. What afflicts me suffices; tell him his coming will kill me. What if I see him die? I should die a double death. The Rajis cannot be conquered. So do not try to release me, But if my sun will not listen then stone me to death, I implore you!
1278. You ask in your letter to me to send my beloved a tokeh. Therefore I send with the slave a piece of the veil he gave me, Which for his sake and our love for each other I value and cherish Though it is black as the colour, alas, of my woebegone fatel.
LETTER WRITTEN BY NESTAN-DAREJAN TO HER BELOVED
1279. Nestan, bitterly weeping, writes her beloved a letter. Surely her tears will soothe the fires consuming his bosoml Surely the words she wrote must soften the heart of a stone ! Her teeth flashed whiter than crystal when the rose of her lips unfolded.
1280. “All my being”, she wrote, “is here in my letter, beloved. My pen is steeped in the gall ceaselessly rising within me. My paper -my own sad heart. attached to the heart of my lover. My heart pressed unto your heart, close as the rosebud's petals.
1281. “You have beheld, my beloved, destiny's cruel compulsion. The sun may shine in the heavens. but darkness envelops my being. The wise man is versed in the world, and therefore despises and shuns it. The world is a desert without you. I shrink from its hollow allurements.
1282. “You have beheld, my beloved, how time and the world have conspired To hold us apart and to leave us deprived of the sight of each other. How can my heart go on beating. far from the heart of my loved one? How is the veil rent asunder that covered the things that were hidden'
1283. I swear by the sun of your life, till now I thought you had perished. I thought I had lost you for ever, the light of my soul was extinguished. Since I have heard you are living, I magnify God and His goodness. And the hours of unrelieved grief are reckoned as hours of rejoicing.
1284. “Hope has returned to my bosom, to my heart laid waste by affliction Since it received the glad tidings. that you, my beloved, are living. Remember me only as one irretrievably lost, but remember I shall cherish the blossoms forever watered so long by my weeping.
1285. “My story, beloved, can never be told or be written in letters. None would believe the recital. though the tongue be tired in the telling. Once I was saved from the Kajis, may God reward my deliverer! But the world has spells of Its own to ensnare the feet of the heedless.
1286. “Fa tewas not appeased nor content with my many afflictions, And added more woe to my woes; misfortune followed misfortune. It delivered me once again into the hands of the Kajis. And all we have suffered, beloved, is due to the working of fate.
1287. “I sit in a tower so lofty that eyes can scarce see the ground. The path to its gates is guarded by vigilant sentries, the Kajis. Each is a valiant swordsman, pledged to destroy the intruder, Watchful by day and by night, lest any should come to my rescue.
1288. Think not to challenge their anger, they are invincible warriors. Do not increase my afflictions by falling prey to their lances! Since you have lost me, beloved, learn to forget my existence. Harden your heart, I beseech you, banish my image for ever.
1289. “Grieve not so sorely, beloved! o my cypress planted In Edenl Know, if I thought you were dead I would hurl myself from this tower, Or plunge a knife into my bosom, my life would be nothing without you, Therefore take heed how you venture, shed not your life-blood in vain.
1290. “Believe me, my sun, your moon will give herself to none other! Not though a threefold sun should offer himself as a bridegroom! Rather than yield myself up I would cast myself from this casement, Trusting for wings from on high to carry me upwards to heaven.
1291. “Pray that the Lord will deliver my soul from the world and its sorrows, My body from union with earth, fire. air and water. Let Him bestow on me wings, that I may attain my desire, Gaze in eternal delight on the rays of the sun in its splendour.
