English
The Fall at White Mountain
Then he spoke to the rebellious chiefs: 'You famous men, you proud commanders,
I want one renowned man, a seeker of glory, who will ride from here toward that Turk,
cut off his head from his body with a dagger, and bring it before me in this gathering.'
Rivniz girded himself for that combat; the moment of that fight seemed his to win.
Bahram said to him: 'O champion, do not blindly darken your own soul.
Fear the Lord of the sun and the moon, and let your heart feel shame before the king's own face.
For this is the king's kin, his half brother, a famous horseman and a fighter,
so that if a single rider from the army goes up against that gifted son of the king,
he will not escape his grip alive; you would only bring grief upon a glad heart.'
The commander was enraged by his words; brave Bahram's counsel did not sit well with him.
He ordered a number of renowned warriors to gallop up toward the high mountain.
Many of the champions rode out, lifting their necks proudly for the fight.
Brave Bahram said to them: 'Do not treat this whole matter as something small.
On that mountaintop stands Kaykhosrow's own kin, and a single hair of his is worth a hundred heroes.
Whoever once saw the face of Siyavash cannot find peace after seeing his likeness.'
When Bahram gave this warning about Forud, the proud men turned back from the road.
Then Tus's son in law came forward, while fate mocked him along the way.
He climbed the leather path up White Mountain; his heart was full of cruelty, and he grew relentless.
When Forud saw him from the crest of the height, he drew the royal bow from its case.
He said to battle tested Takhvar: 'Tus has held those words of mine in contempt.
A rider has come, and it is not Bahram; my heart is hardened, and I have no ease.
Look, and see if you recall who he is: why is he clad in iron from head to foot?'
Takhvar answered him: 'This is Rivniz, a brave man and a horseman.
He has forty sisters, lovely as fresh spring; he is the only son in that whole line.
He is a deceiver, treacherous and a flatterer, bold and young, and the son in law of Tus.'
Forud said to the clear sighted man: 'At the time of battle, such things should not be heard.
When he comes to fight the warriors, I will lay him down to sleep in his sisters' laps.
If the wind of my arrow so much as brushes him, do not count him among the living if he survives.
And if I miss the rider, I will strike his horse dead with my arrow. What do you say, experienced Takhvar?'
He replied: 'Aim at the man himself, so that Tus's liver will burn with grief over him,
and he will know that you set your heart on peace, that you wished for reconciliation with him,
yet he still picked this senseless fight with you and brought shame upon your brother.'
When Rivniz drew near from afar, Forud bent that curved bow of box wood.
From the height he drove a poplar arrow through his chest, pinning his head to his Roman helmet.
Rivniz fell, and his swift horse bolted away; the head of Rivniz went down into the dust.
When Tus looked up from the plain to the height, that mountain vanished from his sight.
A wise man once told this tale: from evil temper, the mountain reaps its punishment.