Avt'handils Tale as Told to Asmath in the Cave
231	HE came down and loosed his horse, which he had tied to the tree, he mounted and rode up; the door of the cave was open, the heart-shaken, tear-flooded maiden ran out thence; she thought the rose-faced, crystal-haloed one was come back.
232	SHE knew not the face, it was not like the face of that knight; swiftly she turned, with a cry she made for rock and tree; the knight leaped from his horse, seized her like a partridge in a net; the rocks resounded with the maid's monotonous cry.
233	SHE yielded not to that knight; even the sight of him was hateful. Like a partridge under an eagle she fluttered hither and thither; she called on a certain Tariel for help, but he succoured her not. Avt'handil threw himself on his knees; he entreated her with his fingers.
234	HE said: "Hush! what ill can I do thee? I am a man of Adam's race. I have seen those roses and violets grown pale. Tell me something of him. Who is the cypress-formed, the halo-faced ? I shall do nought else to thee, be comforted, cry not thus loudly."
235	THE weeping girl said—and her speech was more like discussion than complaint.—"If thou be not mad, let me go; if thou art mad, return to reason. Now thou lightly askest me to tell thee a very hard matter; try not in vain, look not to me to tell his story."
236	AGAIN she said: "0 knight, what wilt thou, or what dost thou request of me ? This thing cannot be even written with the pen. Once thou shalt say 'Tell me!' a hundred times I shall tell thee 'No!' As smiling is better than weeping, so I prefer mourning to song."
237	"MAIDEN, thou knowest not whence I come, what woes I have endured! For as long as I have sought tidings, from none have I heard them. I have found thee; however much my words may annoy thee, I cannot let thee go till thou tell me. Be not bashful with me."
238	THE maiden said: "Why have I fallen in with thee? Who am I ? Or who art thou ? The sun is not near me, this thou knewest, 0 hoarfrost, therefore thou thus annoyest me; long discourse is tedious, so I shall speak shortly to thee; on no account shall I tell thee aught, do whatsoever thou wilt."
239	YET again he adjured her, he threw himself on his knees before her, but nought could he win from her; he wearied of entreaty, his indignation mounted to his face, blood flowed to his eyes, he arose, he drew her by the hair, he put a knife to her throat.
240	THUS he spoke: "How can I forgive thee so much ill-will ? If I weep, shall the tear be in vain. It is better for thee to tell me, I shall trouble thee no more; if not, may God slay mine enemy as I slay thee!"
241	THE maid replied: "Thou hast done exceeding ill to think of using force. If thou kill me not I shall not die; I am hale and alive. Why shall I tell thee anything until the time when I shall no longer see woes, and if thou kill me I shall have no head to converse with thee.
242	AGAIN she said: "Oh, why didst thou find me! Who art thou that speakest with me ? Who ? I cannot be made to tell this story with living tongue. I will make thee kill me at mine own wish; like a despised letter, easily shalt thou tear me.
243	"THINK not that death would be suffering to me, for it would free me from weeping; it is the drier-up of the ford of tears; the whole world seems to me as straw, even so do I weigh it; I know not who thou art, that I should tell thee trusty words."
244	THE knight said to himself: "Thus shall I not make her speak, I must think of some other way; it is better to ponder the matter." He let her go, and sat down apart; he wept, he began to shed tears. He said to the maiden: "I have angered thee; now I know not, alas! how I shall survive."
245	THE maiden sat morose, she is sulky, she is not yet sweetened. Avt'handil sits below weeping; no longer does he speak. In the rose-garden the pool of tears is dammed up. The maiden, too, weeps over yonder, her heart softening towards him.
246	She pitied the weeping knight, therefore her hot tears flowed, but she sat, strange to the stranger, she spake not. The knight perceived that her hasty thoughts towards him were calmed; with flowing tears he entreated her; he arose and bent his knee before her.
247	HE said: "I know that now I am by no means to hope from thee; I have angered thee; I remain a stranger to thee and thus lonely; yet even now I have hope for myself from thee, for it is said that sin shall be forgiven unto seven times.
248	"THOUGH my beginning in service has pleased thee ill, it is fitting to pity the lover; understand thou this: from any other, whomsoever, I can have no aid, none is my strength. I yield thee my life for my heart's sake. What more can I do?"
249	WHEN the maid heard from the knight of his love, with heart sobs she began to shed tears a hundredfold more; again she raised her voice in wailing, she smiled not. God gave Avt'handil his wish, his heart's comfort.
250	HE said to himself: "These words have changed her colour; doubtless her tears flow faster for that she is mad for someone." He spoke once more: "0 sister, a lover is pitied even by his foes; thou, too, knowest that he himself seeks death, he shuns it not.
251	"I AM a lover, a madman to whom life is unbearable. My sun sent me to seek that knight. Even a cloud not reach me where I have been on that quest. I have found thy heart; his to thee, thine to him.
252	"HIS face I have imprinted on my heart like a holy picture. For him mad, cut off, have I given up all my joy. One of two things do thou to me: make me a prisoner or set me free, give me life or slay me, adding grief to grief."
253	THE maiden spoke to the knight a word more pleasant than her first: "What thou hast now thought of is much better; just now thou didst sow enmity in my heart, now thou hast found in me a friend more sisterly than a sister.
254	"THEN, since thou hast thought of love as thine aid, henceforth it will not be that I shall not be thy servant; if I devote not myself to thee, I shall make thee mad, I shall make thee sad; I shall die for thy sake if I find not some means to help thee.
255	"NOW, whatever I tell thee, if thou wilt be obedient to me therein thou shalt meet whatever thou seekest, thou shalt certainly not fail; if thou hearkenest not to me thou shalt not find, let thy tears flow as will; with the world shall come upon thee, thou shalt die, thou shalt be put to shame."
256	THE knight replied: "This only resembles one thing: Two men were journeying somewhere along some road; the one who was behind saw the one in front fall into a well. He came up, called down, weeps and cries 'Woe!'
257	"THUS he spoke: 'Comrade, stay there, wait for me, I go to bring ropes, I want to pull thee out.' The man who was beneath laughed, he marvelled greatly, he shouted up: 'Unless I wait, whither can I flee from thee, whither can I go?'
258	"NOW, sister, thou boldest the rope about my neck; without thee I can undertake nothing; whatever thou doest to me rests with thee, thou art balm to the mad. Otherwise who would bind his sound head with hay-ropes ?"
259	THE maid replied: "Thy discourse, 0 knight, pleases me. Doubtless thou art some good knight, worthy of the praise of the wise. Since thou hast heretofore suffered such griefs, hearken to what I tell thee, and thou hast found what thou seekest.
260	"NOWHERE can news of that knight be found. If he himself tell thee not it will not be told; none other shouldst thou believe. If thou canst wait so long, wait until he come. Be calm; freeze not the rose, let not be snowed up in tears.
261	"I WILL tell thee our names if thou wishest to know them: Tariel is the name of that distracted knight; I am called Asmat'h, whom the hot fire burns, sigh upon sigh, not once alone, but many times.
262	"MORE words about him than these I cannot tell thee. The elegant, slender-formed roams the plain. I eat, alas! alone of the meat brought by him from the chase. He may come anon, I know not, or he may tarry a long time.
263	"I ENTREAT thee to wait; go not elsewhere. When he comes I shall plead with him; it may be I shall be able to do something. I shall make you known to each other; I shall make him love thee. He himself will tell thee his story; thou shalt make thy beloved to rejoice."
264	THE knight listened to the maid, he was obedient, he submitted. Thereupon they looked round, they heard a splash from the glen, they saw the moon come forth from the water, its rays beaming. They hastened back: they made no long tarrying there.
265	THE maid said: "0 knight. God give thee soon what thou desirest; but make thyself unseen, hide thyself inside. No human being is disobedient to that knight; perchance I may so contrive that the sight of thee anger him not."
266	THE maiden hastily hid Avt'handil secretly in the cave. That knight alighted from his horse; his quiver and sword adorn him. They wept aloud, their tears flowing even to the sea. Avt'handil gazed forth, himself hidden from view.
267	THE bath of tears turned the crystal to the colour of jasper. A long time the knight and that black-robed maiden wept. She unbuckled his armour and took it in; she also led in the horse. They were silent; the black knife of jet cut off the tears.
268	AVT'HANDIL watched, a prisoner but now freed from his dungeon. The maid laid down the tiger's skin, the knight sat upon it, he sighs with added grief; the jetty eyelashes are plaited by tears of blood.
269	THAT maiden betook herself to the lighting of a gentle fire with a steel; she thought he would eat meat roasted, whole; she gave it to him, he bit off a piece, it was difficult for him to eat, he had not strength; he began to spit it out unchewed.
270	HE lay down a little, he fell asleep, but only for a short time; he was afraid, he screamed aloud, he leaped up as if dazed, he cried and incessantly beat his breast with a stone and his head with a stick; the maiden sits apart looking at him, and scratches her face.
271	"WHY hast thou returned?" she asked. "Tell me what has happened to thee." He answered: "I came upon a certain king hunting; he had countless soldiers, heavy weighed their baggage, he hunted in that plain where beaters were scattered.
272	"IT was melancholy for me to see men, the fire flamed up still more; I came not near to meet him; I pitied myself. I returned pale from them. I hid in the wood. I thought: 'If he pursues me no more, I shall go away at daybreak tomorrow.'"
273	tears sprang forth a hundredfold, ten thousandfold more THE maiden's. She said: "Thou roamest alone with wild beasts in the deep forest, thou approachest no man for converse and entertainment; thou canst not help her thus; why dost thou waste thy days in vain ?
274	"THOU hast fared over the whole face of the earth; how couldst thou not find one man in whom to take pleasure, and who could be with thee without making thee mad, though it would not lessen thy grief? If thou diest and she perisheth, what doth this profit thee ?"
275	HE said: "0 sister, this is like thy heart, but for this wound there is no balm upon earth. Who can find such a man as hath not yet come into the world ? My joy is death, the severance of flesh and soul.
276	"WHERE, why should God cause a man to be born under the same planet as I, even if I desired his companionship and converse ? Who could bear my woes, or even attempt it ? Save thee, sister, I have no human being anywhere."
277	THE maid said: "Be not angry with me, I fear and entreat thee; since God has appointed me thy vizier, I cannot conceal the best that I know in the matter: to go to extremes is of no use; thou hast overstepped the bounds."
278	THE knight replied: "I know not what thou askest of me; tell me clearly. How can I create a man for my service without God? God needs me to be unhappy; what can I do? Of a truth I am become as a wild beast, to this pass have I brought myself."
279	THE maid again spoke: "I have harassed thee with overmuch advice, but if I could find a man who would come to thee of his own free will, who would stay near thee, who would rejoice thee by his acquaintance, wilt thou swear not to kill him nor do him any hurt ?"
280	HE answered: "If thou wilt show him to me, greatly shall I rejoice at sight of him. I swear by the love of her for whose sake I wander mad in the fields, I shall do nought unpleasing, I shall never cause any bitterness to him; I shall be pleasant and love him, and do all I can to be amiable."