Page:Tales from the Gulistan (1928).pdf/215

Story CXLIV current in this country is in the Persian language; if thou wilt recite some, it will be more easily understood."

Then I said:

The next morning, when I was about to depart, some people told him that I was Sa'di, whereon he came running to me and politely expressed his regret that I had not revealed my identity before, so that he might have girded his loins to serve me, in token of the gratitude due to the presence of a great man. "In spite of thy presence no voice came to say: 'I am he.'"

He also said: "What would it be if thou wert to spend in this country some days in repose, that we might derive advantage by serving thee?"

I replied: "I cannot, on account of the following adventure which occurred to me: I beheld an illustrious man in a mountain region who had contentedly retired from the world into a cave. 'Why,' said I, 'comest thou not into the city, for once to relax the bonds of thy heart?' He replied: 'Fairy-faced maidens are there: when clay is plentiful, elephants will stumble.'"

This I said; then we kissed each other's heads and faces and took leave of each other. What profits it to kiss a friend's face and at the same time to take leave of him? Thou wouldst say that he who parts from friends is an apple, one half of his face is red and the other yellow.