English
Part 7: Katayun's Choice
It was the Caesar's custom in those days that when his daughter came of age,
and her fortune rose high and she sought a mate, he saw that the time for marriage had come.
He would gather an assembly at his palace: the great, the wise, and the counselors,
everyone who was her equal, all the famous men of high and noble bearing.
From her father's palace the moon-faced girl would walk among that gathering, seeking her mate.
Servants would move around her, so that her crown could not be seen through the crowd.
In the Caesar's private quarters in those days, three daughters were famous throughout the world,
for their height, their beauty, their gentle grace, their fitness and their worthiness.
The eldest was named Katayun: wise, bright of heart, and full of joy.
One night Katayun dreamed that the whole country shone bright with sunlight.
An assembly of men appeared, and from the crowd of people one rose like the Pleiades.
At the head of the gathering sat a stranger: a foreigner, heart-wounding and wise,
tall as a cypress and with a face like the moon, he sat as though upon a king's throne.
Katayun gave him a bouquet, and from him she took a bouquet of color and scent.
The Caesar gathered a great assembly of all who were strong and mighty.
At dawn, when the sun blazed forth, the heads of the famous men rose from sleep.
They seated them gladly in that assembly, and then they summoned the fairy-faced girl.
Katayun came with sixty attendants, each holding a bunch of flowers in hand.
She kept circling until she grew weary, but no one in that crowd pleased her.
From the great hall she turned toward her chamber, walking swiftly, still searching for her mate.
Just then the earth turned black as a raven's wing, until the lamp of dawn rose over the mountain.
The Caesar commanded that from the lowborn to the wealthy nobles throughout the land of Rome,
they should all be brought to the high palace, so that one might be found she liked.
When word reached every noble, every famous man and champion,
the wise host said to Gushtasp: 'Why do you keep yourself so hidden?
Go, so that perhaps by seeing a crown and a throne of greatness your heart may empty itself of sorrow.'
When Gushtasp heard this he went with him, hurrying swiftly to the Caesar's hall.
He withdrew to a corner, away from the great ones, and sat in secret, wounded and full of pain.
The alert-hearted attendants set out: Katayun and the flower-faced servants.
She walked around her hall, the wise ones behind her and the servants ahead.
When she saw Gushtasp from afar she said: 'That dream has lifted its head from hiding.'
Upon that worthy, famous man she placed her crown, and at once her happy head was adorned.
When the wise tutor saw this, he ran at once to the Caesar and said:
'She has chosen a man from the assembly, tall as a straight cypress in a meadow,
with a face like a rose garden, broad of shoulder and neck, so that anyone who sees him is left astonished.
The trouble is that we do not know who he is; you would say he is nothing but divine glory itself.'
He answered thus: 'Better my daughter were dead than that she bring shame upon our lineage.'
'If I hand her over to him, my head will sink low in disgrace.
Both him and the one she has chosen must have their heads cut off in the palace.'
The bishop said: 'This is no heavy matter; there were leaders before you as well.
You told your daughter to seek a partner; you did not say to seek a proud Roman.
Now she has sought the one who pleased her; do not turn your head from the path of God.
Such was the custom of your ancestors, your proud, devout, and pure forebears.
By this custom Rome's foundation was laid; do not take a different path in this flourishing land.
It will not be blessed, so do not even say it; do not walk a road you have never traveled.'