Avt'handil's Second Departure and Meeting with Tariel
828	WHEN the moon is far from the sun, distance makes her bright; when she is near, his ray consumes her—she is repelled, she cannot approach. But sunlessness dries up the rose and lessens its colour. Not seeing the beloved renews in us our old grief.
829	NOW will I begin the story of that knight's departure. He goes away and weeps with boiling heart; it cannot be said that his tears diminished. Every moment he turned back: he prayed that he might find his sun-like one in sun-like beauty. He gazed, he could not detach his eyes; if he tore them away he lost consciousness.
830	WHEN he was near fainting, he had no power to move his tongue, but tears run from his eyes, pouring forth as from a spring. Sometimes he turns; he looks for means to bear his pains. When he goes forward he knows not whither his horse has borne him.
831	HE said: "O mine own! Let him who is far from thee and yet silent be accursed; since my mind remains with thee, let my heart also return to thee; the weeping eyes, too, wish and long to see thee. It is better that the lover should be subjected as much as may be to love!
832	"WHAT shall I do till I am united to thee, or in what thinkest thou I shall find joy!I would slay myself but that I doubt it would displease thee, but it would grieve thee to hear I was no longer living. Come then and let us living give our eyes to the shedding of tears."
833	HE wept and repeated: "Ten lances have pierced my heart! An army of Indians-the dense thicket of her eyelashes—has slain me. Her jet eyes lend her beauty. But why have they overcome me ? Eyelashes, eyes, teeth, lips and black hair are the cause of my suffering."
834	HE said: "0 sun, who art said to be the image of the sunny night of Him who is One in unity of being and Everlasting. whom the heavenly bodies obey to the jot of a second, turn not away my good fortune; hear my prayer till our meeting, mine and hers!
835	"THOU whom former philosophers addressed as the image of God, aid me, for I am become a captive, iron chains bind me! I, seeker of crystal and ruby, have lost coral and enamel; formerly I could not endure nearness, now I regret absence."
836	THUS he consumed himself; like a candle he melted. The fear of being too late made him hasten; he wandered on. When night fell, he found delight in the rising of the stars; he compared them to her, he rejoiced, he gazed on them. he held converse with them.
837	HE says to the moon: "I adjure thee in the name of thy God, thou art the giver of the plague of love to lovers; thou hast the balm of patience to make them bear it; hear my prayer to unite me with the face fair, through thee, like thine own."
838	NIGHT rejoiced him, day tortured him, he awaited the sunset. When he saw a stream he dismounted; he gazed on the rippling of the water, with it he united the rivulet of blood from the lake of tears; again he set out, he hasted onward on his road.
839	ALONE he lamented; he who was like the aloe-tree in form wept. He killed a goat in the plain where he came to a rocky place, roasted and ate of it and went on, sun-faced, martial in heart. He said: "I forsook roses, and behold me here woeful!"
840	I CANNOT now tell the words then spoken by that knight, or what he discoursed and lamented with such elegance. Sometimes his eyes reddened with their tears, the rose of his cheeks scratched by his nail. When he saw the caves he was glad; he went up to the door of the cave.
841	WHEN Asmat'h perceived him, she went to meet him, her tears fell fast; she rejoiced so greatly that she will never have such joy again. The knight dismounted, embraced her, kissed her, and conversed with her. When a man has waited for a man, the coming pleases him wondrously.
842	THE knight said to the damsel: "Where and how is thy lord ?" The damsel wept with tears which might have fed the sea. She said: "When thou wert gone, he roamed about, for it irked him to be in the cave; now I know nought of him, either by sight or tidings."
843	THE knight was pained as if some lance had struck him in the midst of his heart. He said to Asmat'h: "0 sister, not thus should a man be! How could he break his oath! I deceived him not; how could he be false to me! If he could not keep it, why did he promise ? If he promised me, why did he lie ?
844	"SINCE save for him I counted not this world as grief, why did he forget me when I departed ? Why could he not endure, what troubled him ? How dared he break the oath he had sworn ? But why should I marvel at evil from my Fate!"
845	AGAIN the maiden spoke: "Thou art justified in such sorrow; but when thou shalt judge aright—suspect me not of complaisance—is not heart needed to fulfil oath and promise ? He, bereft of heart, awaits only the curtailment of his days.
846	"HEART, mind and thought depend one upon another. When heart goes the others also go and follow it. A man deprived of heart cannot play the man; he is chased forth from men. Thou sawest not, thou knowest not, what fires consumed him.
847	"THOU art right in murmuring that thou art separated from thy sworn brother, but how can it be told into what plight he fell, how can I tell thee the fact ? Tongue will fail, will be exhausted, the aching heart will ache still more. Thus think I, for I saw, I luckless born.
848	"HITHERTO none has heard in story of sufferings like unto his; such torture would affright not only men, but even stones; sufficient for a fountain are the tears that have flowed from his eyes. Whatever you say, you are right; one is wise in another's battle.
849	"WHEN he went forth, burned, consumed with fires, I asked him: 'Tell me, his adopted sister, what will Avt'handil do when he comes ?' He replied: 'Let him come to seek me, me useless for his sake. I shall not leave this vicinage; I will not break my promise to him.
850	"'My vow I will not break, that oath will I not belie; I shall wait till the time appointed, however much the channels of tears may flow. If he find me dead, let him bury me, let him say Alas! and mourn. If I meet him living, let him marvel, for my life is doubtful.'
851	"HENCEFORTH the sundering of the sun and the mountain-top hath befallen me, only I must shed tears moistening the plains; maddened, I am tortured by the exceeding multiplication of groans; death has forgotten me, behold the deed of Fate!
852	"THIS true saying is written on a stone in China: 'Who seeks not a friend is his own foe!' Now that to which nor rose nor violet could be likened is become saffron. If thou seekest, then, seek him; do what befits thee."
853	THE knight said: "Thou art right in not justifying me in murmuring against him. But bethink thee what service I have done as one prisoner of love to another: I fled from my home, like a stag seeking water I seek him and think of him, I wander from field to field.
854	"THE crystal pearl-shells guard the ruby-hued pearl and apparel it; from her I have gone away, I could not stay near her, I could not make her happy, nor could I be happy; by my privy flight I have angered the equals of God, in return for their favours I have troubled their hearts.
855	"MY lord and upbringer, by the grace of God living in might, paternal, sweet, merciful, a sky snowing graciousness, to him have I been faithless; I went away, verily I forgot all, and guilty toward him, I no longer await any good thing from God.
856	"ALL this afflicts me thus, 0 sister, for his sake. I have not deceived him, but am come a wayfarer by night and day. Now he is gone somewhere, he for whom I am consumed with fire, wearied in vain and weeping I sit with a sad face.
857	"SISTER, the hour and time give me no more leisure for converse. I repent not the past, early will I fulfil the word of the wise; I go, I will seek, either shall I find him or bring death early upon me; otherwise, since I am thus doomed by Fate, what can I embolden myself to say to God."
858	No more than this he said: he wept and went his way. He passed the caves, crossed the water, went through the reeds and came to the plain. The wind blowing over the fields froze the rose to a ruby hue. "Why givest thou me this plague?" He reproached Fate for this.
859	HE said: "0 God, wherein have I sinned against thee, the Lord, the All-Seeing ? Why hast Thou separated me from my friends ? Why didst Thou lure me on to such a fate ? One thinking of two, I am in a parlous plight; if I die I shall not pity myself, my blood be on my head!
860	"MY friend cast a bunch of roses on my heart, and so wounded it; that oath fulfilled by me he kept not. If, 0 passing world, thou partest me from him, my joy is past, to mine eyes another friend were reviled and shamed."
861	THEN he said: "I marvel at the spleen of a man of sense; when he is sad, of what avail is a rivulet from the terraced roof? It is better to choose, to ponder over the fitting deed. Now for me, too, it is better to seek that sun-like one, reed-like in form."
862	THE knight, weeping, besprinkled with tears, set himself to search; he seeks, he calls, he cries aloud, watching by night as by day; for three days he traversed many a mountain pass, reedy thicket, forest and field; he could not find him; sad he went, unable to learn any tidings.
863	HE said: "O God, wherein have I sinned against Thee? How have I displeased Thee so greatly ? Why bring this fate upon me ? What torture hast Thou sent upon me! Judge me, O Judge, hearken to my prayer; shorten my days, thus turn my woes to joy!"