Page:Man in the Panther's Skin.djvu/203

 her! If she consume me, lo! I am ready, no preparation is needed for this."

1115. When she had ended these words, P'hatman rent her face with her hands; Avt'handil, too, wept, he shed hot tears; they forgot each other, for her (Nestan's) sake they became as mad; the spring (of tears) flowing down from above melted the slight new-fallen snow (of the cheek).

1116. They wept. The knight said: 'Break not off! Conclude!" P'hatman said: "I received her; I made my heart faithful to her. I kissed her every part, and thereby I wearied her. I seated her on my couch, I caressed her, I loved her.

1117. "I said to her: 'Tell me, O sun, who thou art or of what race a child! Whither were those Ethiops taking thee, lady of the Pleiads of heaven?' To all these words she made me no answer. I saw a hundred springs of tears dropping from her eyes.

1118. "When I pressed her with questions, with much discourse, she wept with gentle voice, sobbing from the heart; a stream flowed through the jetty trough (of her lashes) from the narcissus (eyes), upon the crystal and ruby (of her cheeks). Gazing at her I burned, I became dead-hearted.

1119. "She said to me: 'To me thou art a mother, better than a mother. Of what profit can my story be to thee? It is but the tale of a chatterer. A lone wanderer am I, overtaken by an unhappy fate. If thou ask me aught, may the might of the All-seeing curse thee!' (?)

1120. 'I said (to myself), 'It is not fitting untimeously to carry off and summon the sun; the captor will become mad and wholly lose his wits. A request should be timely,