Page:Man in the Panther's Skin.djvu/53

 arm his pillow. He says to himself: "O beloved, I am far from thee, my heart stays with thee ; I lament, for thy sake death would be joy to me."

181. He journeyed over all the face of the earth, he went thoroughly over it, so that beneath heaven was no place left where he had not been; but he met none who had heard tidings of him he sought; meanwhile three years save three months had passed.

182. He arrived in a certain dreadful country, exceeding rough; for a month he saw no man, no son of Adam. Neither Vis nor Ramin saw such woe like unto his. By day and by night he thought of her, his beloved.

183. He reached as a resting-place the slope of a great high mountain; thence appeared a plain which it would take seven days to cross. At the foot of the mountain flowed a river that could not be bridged; both sides were covered down to the water's edge with forests.

184. He goes up, turns round (?) and counts the time, the remaining days—he has two months left. He sighs at this, he rejoices not. "Alas! if the thing were revealed!" Again he is timid in heart by reason of this. No man can turn evil to good; none can be born again of himself.

185. He became thoughtful; he stood to consider the matter. He said to himself: "If I return thus, why have I spent so much time in the field? What can I dare say to my star, how I have spent the days? I have learned not even gossip regarding him I seek.

186. "If I return not, I must spend yet more time in the quest, if I can learn no tidings of him I seek; when