English
Section 22: Alexander and Qaydarosh
When Alexander read that letter, he sounded the brass trumpets and set his army moving.
For a whole month he marched on the road, until he reached that king's borders with his troops.
There was a king named Faryan, rich in army, treasure, and every pleasure.
He held a walled city equipped for war; even a leopard could not have breached his tent.
Alexander brought his army and laid siege to that fortress, where riders patrolled along its ramparts.
Alexander ordered the chief engineer to bring up the war engines and catapults.
Within a week he took the high fortress, and his noble army entered the city.
When Alexander came into the city, he commanded that no one's blood be shed.
There was a son of Qaydafa who was a son in law, and in this city Faryan was glad of him.
Faryan had given him his precious daughter, and through this Qaydafa's crown rose high in honor.
The son in law was named Qaydarosh; to him Faryan had given his heart, his eyes, and his ears.
There was a man named Shahrgir, and in his grip both wife and husband had been taken captive.
Alexander learned who that man was and sought a way to resolve the matter.
He ordered his vizier to come before him, and gave him command, the crown, and the throne for a plan.
The wise man's name was Bitqun, a shrewd counselor and a man of broad ambition.
He said to him: a bride is coming before you; I will call you Alexander, son of Philip.
Sit in the manner and custom of kings, and when I come before you I will stand with a belt at my waist.
Command that the fierce war executioner strike Qaydarosh's head from his shoulders.
I will come before you as a pleader and show you great humility.
Arrange a private audience with no crowd, so that when I press my plea, you will grant him to me.
That minister became a partner to pain; he did not know what secret lay hidden in this.
Then the king of the world said to him: this matter must remain hidden.
Call me before you as though I were an envoy, and bring up some of Qaydafa's words.
Send me off gladly with ten riders, saying: go, deliver the letter quickly and bring back the answer.
Bitqun said to him: I will do just so, and by your command I will work this ruse.
At dawn the sun drew its dagger, and the dark night vanished in fear.
Bitqun sat upon the throne, his face full of shame and his heart weeping tears of blood.
Alexander stood before him with a belt, the door of scheming open and the real door shut.
When Shahrgir brought forward that son of Qaydafa, weeping and held captive,
and his wife likewise, with all her perfume and beauty, the young man gripping her tight in his hands,
Bitqun quickly asked: who is this man, that he must weep so much from grief?
He answered thus: come to your senses, I am Qaydarosh, the son of Qaydafa.
I have no other wife but this daughter of Faryan, whom I keep hidden behind my curtains.
My intent was to take her to my own home and cherish her like my own life.
Now I am a captive in Shahrgir's hands, my soul wounded by fate and my body by the arrow.
When Bitqun heard these words from him, his head filled with pain and his heart with blood.
Then, in fury, he said to the executioner: both of these must be buried in the earth.
Just so, still in chains along with his wife, strike his neck with an Indian sword.
Alexander came forward and kissed the ground, and said to him: O king of imperial blood,
if you grant me their lives and spare their blood, I will be exalted in every gathering.
Why take the heads of the innocent in vengeance? The Creator of the world would not approve of us.
The clear minded Bitqun said to him: you have spared these two from death.
Quickly Bitqun said to Qaydarosh: you carried your head, which had nearly left your shoulders.
Now I will send him along with you, to explain everything, in full, to your mother.
If she sends tribute and taxes, it will be well; no one's skin will be torn in this fighting.
Look at this pure minister of mine, who tells him: war or feast is all one to me.
Do that good to him which he has done to you; the heart of a noble man turns toward repaying kindness.
When you receive this answering letter from the king, send him back on his road with kindness.
Qaydarosh said to Bitqun thus: I will not take from him my heart, my eyes, or my ears.
How could I not hold him dear as my own life, since through him I found a wife and a sweet soul?