The Knight in the Tiger's Skin, 1938

1557. Rostevan said: "O king, why art thou so bashful? Whatever is best for you do it, look into it, examine it. Avt’handil will accompany thee, go with a great host; rend in pieces and cut up your enemies and them that are traitors."

1558. Avt’handil said to Tariel those (same) two words (that Rostevan had said). He (Tariel) said: "Speak not thus; guard the crystal mounds. How canst thou, O sun, depart from the newly united moon!" Avt’handil said: "I shall not be seduced by thee with this:

1559. "Of a truth thou wishest not to forsake me while thou goest away slandering me, saying: 'He loveth his wife, forsooth; he hath forsaken me, ’twas like him!' Am I to remain sundered from thee and an object of pity to myself! For a man to forsake his friend! Ugh! Ugh! he will do ill!"

1560. Tariel's smile is like the sprinkling of crystal with roses. He said: "Absent from thee I bewail myself more than thou. Since thou wishest it, come away with me, accuse me not of flattery." Avt’handil commands troops to be summoned to him from all sides.

1561. He assembled the armies of Arabia, no time is wasted; eighty thousand men were all arrayed, man and horse clad in armour of Khvarazmia. The King of the Arabs eats the gall of bitterness at their separation.

1562. Parting each from other, both maidens, the adopted sisters, sworn with the oath of sisterhood, trusting in each other's word, with breast welded to breast, with neck riveted to neck, wept. The onlookers, too, had their hearts consumed.

1563. When the moon is on a level with the star of dawn, both shine equally; should (one) go away, (the other also) is removed; if it go not away, the sky will make it remove; to look at them the onlooker must become a hill and a mountain (?)

1564. He who created them such, He Himself shall sunder them, though of their own will they desire not parting. They glue together and cleave the rose, they weep and tears flow; all those who parted from them thought their lives of no account.

1565. Nestan-Daredjan said: "Would that I had never come to know thee! Separated from the sun I should not now be thus melted by parting. Thou shalt know tidings of me; let me have news of thee, speak to me in letters. As I am burned up for thy sake, thou shalt melt for mine."

1566. T’hinat’hin said: "O sun, delight of them that gaze on thee! How can I give thee up, or how can I endure parting! Instead of praying for days from God, I shall desire death. Mayst thou have as many days as I shall shed tears!"

1567. Again they kissed each other, those ladies parted; she who was left there could not take her eyes away from her who was gone; she too looks back, therefore flames consumed her. I cannot write down a tenth part of that I could wish!

1568. Rostan at their departure was made more mad than madmen; a thousand times he says, "Woe is me!" not merely once doth he sigh; hot flows the spring of tears, as if a cauldron were being heated. Tariel's face is drawn, the soft snow falls gently, it wastes away.

1569. The king crushed Tariel's rose with embracing and kissing. Quoth he: "Your presence hitherto seems like a dream to me; when thou art gone afar from me I shall remain with my sufferings twentyfold increased. Life was given to us by thee; by thee also shall we be slain."

1570. Tariel mounted and parting from the king gave him a farewell greeting; all the soldiers shed tears moistening the meadows, they said: "The sun hastes to greet thee, haste thou too to meet him." He said: "Weeping for your sake, why should I hasten?"

1571. They set out and departed with many troops and much baggage– Tariel, P’hridon, Avt’handil, (all) well provided; he had eighty thousand men with worthy steeds; the three went on, helpful one to another.

1572. The three went their way–God can never create their like again! They were met; none dared withstand them. In the plain they tarried for dinner when morning was past. As was fitting they feasted; they drank wine, not buttermilk.

Tarid Hears About the Death ojthe King of India

1573. ON the summit of the mountain, a great caravan appeared, men and mules were all in black; the tresses of their hair were woven round their heads. The king commandeth: "Bring them here, we must tarry yet :a. while."

1574. THEY brought those merchants and their chief. The king asked.: .((Who are you, why are your bodies robed in blackC" The men answered: '''Such is the custom in the countries from which we come. We came to India from Egypt and have travdled a long way."

1575. TARIEL, P'hridon and Avt'handil rejoiced to hear.that those mer:.Chants had come from India; they feigned indifference and abandoned. themsdves not to their fedings. Tariel began to speak to them in a foreign language, they did not understand Indian and they also answered in Arabian