Section 9: Rustam Answers the Envoy

From the back of his elephant, the Khaqan looked out and saw the earth stretching like the Nile. There, on the ridge of a high mountain, stood a great elephant; its name was Rustam, binder of demons. From the dark clouds a vulture came to gaze on the stars and the wheel of the moon. One of the champions stepped forward from the army, a man who knew the speech of Iran well. He said to him: go stand before that lion of a man and tell him not to be rash in battle. The men of Chaghan, Shughnan, China, and Vahr have nothing to gain from this feud. One is the king of Khotlan, one the king of China; you have no quarrel with strangers. There is a monarch, Afrasiyab, who knows fire well enough from water. He gathered a whole world in this way, and brought disaster on himself from this war. No one lives without greed, without honor or shame; yet peace comes out better than war. The envoy came before the mighty-bodied one, his tongue full of words, his heart full of dread. He said to him: O great warrior, now that your fighting is done, seek the feast instead. Surely you hold in your heart no grudge against the Khaqan of China for what is past. As he turns back, you turn back too, for the army's battle is now at an end. Since Kamus was slain by your hand, the head of all the warriors has been cut off. He answered thus: the elephants and the crown, the ivory throne, must all come to me. He set out to plunder Iran; what use are pleading and talk now? When he knows the army has come to fight, the troops' haste has left all delay behind. The envoy said: O master of Rakhsh, do not give away the deer you haven't caught in the field. Who knows how fortune itself will turn, who will come back victorious from the fray? When Rustam heard this, he spurred Rakhsh on; I am, he said, the lion-slayer, the crown-giver. A man of strength, the lasso on my arm; this is the day for tricks, the hour for snares. What is the Khaqan of China to my lasso? What is a raging lion to my binding grip?