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don gay colours. Let us make the downtrodden, the orphans and widows,[1] to pray; let us help them that God may give him paths of peace!"
XXIV
AVT'HANDIL'S SECOND DEPARTURE AND MEETING WITH TARIEL
811. When the moon is far from the sun, distance makes her[2] 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[3] the beloved renews in us our old grief.
812. 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.[4] He gazed, he could not detach his eyes; if he tore them away he lost consciousness.
813. 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 (aid) to bear his pains. When he goes forward he knows not whither his horse has borne him.
814. He said: "O mine own! let him who is far from thee and yet silent be accursed;[5] 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[6] as much as may be to love!
815. "What shall I do till I am united to thee, or in
- ↑ Skhvani, others, agreeing with kvrivni, widows, is omitted in the translation, as its sense is not clear; probably, "other lonely ones." Cf. 784, 785, 1571.
- ↑ In Georgian folklore the moon is male, and the sun female; in the English translation the genders are changed.
- ↑ I.e., "realizing the absence of."
- ↑ Ch. Dict. s.v. mze; or, "that the sun would be a sun for him" (?).
- ↑ Cruli, ? for shecruli, bound (Ch.); 700.
- ↑ Dzabuni, P., 586.
