Page:Man in the Panther's Skin.djvu/74

 from her how can the heart bear separation (even if it were) adamant or forged (steel)?

317. "So she grew up, (and) I was able to go to battle. Since the king looked upon the maid as the heir to the kingship, he gave me back into the hands of my father. When I was of that age I played at ball, I sported in the lists, I killed a lion like a cat.

318. "The king built a house, and in it a dwelling for the maid; for stone he used bezoar, cut jacinths and rubies; in front was a little garden and a fountain of rose-water for bathing; there abode she for whose sake a furnace of flame consumes me.

319. "Day and night cut aloes poured forth their incense from censers. Sometimes she sits in the tower; sometimes she descends to the garden when it is shaded. Davar was the king's sister, a widow who had been wedded in Kadjet'hi ; to her the king gave his child to be taught wisdom.

320. "The palace was curtained with cloth of gold and costly brocades ; none of us saw her (how) she became crystal and rose of face; Asmat'h and two slaves she had, they played backgammon. There her shape was formed; she grew up like (? a tree) in Gabaon.

321. "I was fifteen years old. The king brought me up as a son; by day I was before him, (and) he did not even give me leave to sleep (at home). In power a lion, to the eye a sun, in form I was like one reared in Eden; they lauded the feats done by me in archery and in the lists.

322. "The arrow I shot slew beasts and game; returned from the plain, I played at ball in the square ; then I went home, I used to make a feast, accustomed