Page:Man in the Panther's Skin.djvu/273

 Avt'handil will accompany thee, go with a great host; rend in pieces and cut up your enemies and them that are traitors."

1540. 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:

1541. "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!"

1542. 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.

1543. 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.

1544. 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.

1545. When the moon is on a level with the star of dawn, both shine equally ; should (one) go away, (the other also)