English
Part 12: The Secret Love of Rudabeh
Between the great commander and that cypress-slender girl there was a woman, a sweet-spoken messenger.
She carried word to the hero, and from the hero back to the graceful girl.
The commander Dastan summoned her and told her all that he had heard.
He said: Go to Rudabeh and tell her, You who are kind-hearted, my new moon,
When words are driven to the tightest, hardest place, you will soon find the key to their release.
The messenger returned from Sam's family with joy and a blessed message.
Much was said and heard, many tales exchanged, and in the end he agreed to the match.
He quickly gave the woman his answering letter, and she left his presence and carried it away.
She came to Rudabeh swift as the wind and gave her this happy news.
The fairy-faced girl showered coins upon the woman and seated her on a golden chair.
She brought out a headscarf of fine silk, its threads and weave so delicate they vanished from sight.
It was all red rubies and gold, the gold itself lost beneath the gems.
And a pair of precious rings, gleaming like Jupiter shining in the sky,
She sent to Dastan, son of Sam, along with many greetings and a message.
As the woman passed from the chamber to the hall, Sindokht happened to look up and see her.
The woman turned pale as wax with fear, and in her dread she kissed the ground.
Sindokht's mind grew heavy with suspicion, and she said aloud: Tell me where you have come from.
Time and again you slip past me, entering my daughter's chamber without a glance at me.
My clear heart has grown mistrustful of you; tell me the truth, whether the bow is strung or unstrung.
The woman said: I am one who scrapes a living, gathering my bread from many doors.
Rudabeh asked me for ornaments here in this chamber, and I gave them to her, that is all, it is the truth.
I brought her a decorated crown and a ring set with royal jewels.
Sindokht said: Then show them to me, and unbind my heart from its worries.
The woman said: I handed those two things to Rudabeh; she asked for more, so I will bring them too.
She said: Set the price before me, pour a little cooling water on my anger.
As for the coins, the moon-faced girl will pay tomorrow; until I receive the price, do not ask me for it.
Sindokht sensed her words were crooked, and set her heart to confront her.
She came and searched her, her breast and her sleeves, looking for the lie and the deceit.
In her anger the woman filled with grief, and Sindokht dragged her scornfully to the ground.
When she saw those costly garments and recognized the jewels as gifts from Rudabeh,
She shut herself alone within the palace, drunk with the weight of her thoughts.
She ordered her daughter brought before her, striking her own face in distress.
With her drowsy, narcissus eyes she washed the two roses of her cheeks until they glistened.
She said to Rudabeh: You proud moon, out of your willfulness you have chosen a pit over a throne.
What kindness in this world have I withheld, that I did not show you openly and in secret?
Why have you turned so cruel, moon-faced girl? Tell all your secrets to your mother.
Whose house does this woman come from? Why does she keep coming to you?
What is behind these words, and who is the man worthy of the headscarf and the rings?
From the great treasury of the Arab king's crown, much profit and much loss have come to us.
You have thrown our good name to the wind by this scandal; may no daughter like mine ever be born.
Rudabeh stared at the ground and at her own feet, struck dumb before her mother's rage.
Tears of love spilled from her eyes, and her cheeks were painted red with weeping.
She said to her mother: You who are wise, love has crushed the very life within me.
Better that my blessed mother had never borne me, and no talk of my good or ill had ever risen.
The commander Dastan stayed in Kabul, and such love for him set me on fire.
The world grew so narrow around my heart that I wept both openly and in secret.
I will not stay alive without his face; the whole world is not worth a single hair of his.
Know that he saw me and sat with me, and we clasped hands in a pledge, hand in hand.
A messenger was sent to great Sam, and mighty Zal sent back his answer.
For a while there was hesitation, then approval; the necessary words were spoken and heard.
Much was given to the messenger, and I too heard all of Sam's reply.
It was by the hand of this same woman, whose hair you tore, whom you threw down and dragged along the ground,
That the messenger brought the letter; these very clothes were my answer to that letter.
Sindokht was struck silent by this speech, and it pleased her that Zal should be her daughter's mate.
She answered: This is no folly, for no one among the nobles is like Dastan.
The son of the world's great hero is himself great in name and in bright clear judgment.
He has every virtue, and only one flaw, so slight it fades before all his merits.
The king of the world will be enraged by this, and raise the dust of Kabul up to the sun.
He will not want anyone from our line, our lowly stock, to set foot in the saddle of power.
She let the woman go and treated her kindly, and made it seem she had never recognized her.
She saw Rudabeh so deep in her secret love that she would heed no one's counsel in the world.
She lay down weeping from her grief; you would think her very skin had split upon her body.