The Fall of Jamshid

After that, a great cry rose from Iran, and from every side came war and turmoil. The bright white day turned black, and people cut their bonds with Jamshid. The divine glory faded from him; he drifted into crookedness and folly. From every direction a king appeared, an ambitious warrior in each region. They raised armies and prepared for war, their hearts emptied of love for Jamshid. One by one the troops set out from Iran and made their way toward the land of the Arabs. They had heard that there was a great lord there, a terrifying king with the body of a dragon. All the horsemen of Iran, in search of a king, turned their faces toward Zahhak. They hailed him with praise as their sovereign and called him the king of the land of Iran. The dragon king came like the wind and set the crown upon his head over Iran. He chose picked warriors from Iran and from the Arabs, gathering them from every country. He set his face toward the throne of Jamshid and made the world a ring on his own finger. When Jamshid's fortune grew slow and weak, the new ruler of the world closed in on him. Jamshid fled and gave over to him the throne and crown, his greatness, his diadem, his treasure and his army. For a hundred years no one in the world saw him; the name of king was still his, but he had vanished. In the hundredth year, one day by the sea of China, that king of impure faith reappeared. He had hidden himself from the evil dragon, yet in the end he was not freed from him. When Zahhak suddenly caught him in his grip, he gave him not a moment's delay. He sawed him clean in two and cleared the world of him without fear. So went that royal throne and all that power; time swept him away like straw drawn by amber. Who was greater than he upon the throne of kings? What good, in the end, came of all that toil? Seven hundred years had passed over him; he had brought forth every kind of good and evil. What is the use of a long life, when the world will never unlock its secret for you? It nurses you with honey and sweetness; nothing but its soft voice reaches your ear. Just when you think it has spread its love and will never turn a cruel face toward you, you grow happy with it and take pride in it, and open the secrets of your heart to it, it plays a clever new trick and fills your heart with pain and blood. My heart is weary of this fleeting inn of a world; God, deliver me quickly from this suffering.