English
Mehrab and Sindokht Speak of Rudabeh
When Mehrab came home from the court, cheerful, he kept mentioning Zal again and again.
He found the noble Sindokht lying down, her face withered, her heart troubled.
He asked, 'Tell me, what has happened to you? Why has that face, like a rose petal, wilted?'
She answered Mehrab, 'A long train of thoughts has taken hold of my heart.'
'Thoughts of this flourishing palace and all this wealth, of these fine Arabian horses so well arrayed,'
'of these servants who honor their lord, of this crown and this royal seat,'
'of our own faces and our tall, cypress forms, of our name, our wisdom, and our judgment.'
'Upon all this splendor and this rectitude, time, moment by moment, brings decay.'
'Against our will, it must all be handed to an enemy; all our striving must be counted as wind.'
'A narrow coffin is our final share, a tree whose antidote turns out to be our poison.'
'We planted it, watered it with hardship, and hung crown and treasure from its branches.'
'And just as it rose to the sun and gave shade, the head of its owner sank into the dust.'
'This is our end and our conclusion; who knows where our rest will finally be.'
Mehrab said to Sindokht, 'You bring this up as if it were new, but it never grows old.'
'This transient dwelling has always been like this; the wise have always dreaded it.'
'One person enters as another departs, no true crossing, for the wheel keeps trampling us.'
'It shows no change for our joy or grief; there is no fighting the just Creator over this.'
Sindokht said to him, 'This tale wears another face in ancient meaning.'
'A wise, fortunate sage once told his child the parable of the tree.'
'I told the parable so that, through reason, the lord would weigh my words.'
The graceful cypress bent her head, the narcissus wept dew onto the red rose.
'The heavens do not turn overhead the way we wish them to, O wise one.'
'Know this: the son of Sam has secretly laid every kind of snare for Rudabeh.'
'He has led her clear heart astray; we must find some remedy.'
'I gave her much advice, but it did no good; I see her heart bewildered and her face pale.'
When Mehrab heard this, he sprang to his feet and laid his hand on his sword.
His body shook, his face went pale as lapis, his liver full of blood, his heart full of cold sighs.
He kept saying, 'I will make Rudabeh's blood run over the face of the earth this very moment.'
Seeing this, Sindokht leapt up and wrapped both arms around his waist.
She said, 'Hear now one word from your humble one, and lend it a little of your ear.'
'After that, do whatever your judgment tells you, whatever your soul and reason guide you to.'
He twisted away and flung her aside, and let out a roar like a maddened elephant.
'When my daughter was born,' he cried, 'her head should have been cut off at once.'
'I did not kill her; I strayed from my forefathers' way, and now she has worked such alchemy against me.'
'A son who turns from his father's path, the brave will not reckon him as his father's own.'
'This is both a threat to my life and a place of shame; why do you hold my head back from battle?'
'If the hero Sam, together with King Manuchehr, gain the upper hand over us,'
'smoke will rise from Kabul up to the sun; nothing will remain, no dwelling, no field, no harvest.'
Sindokht said to the lord of the land, 'Do not turn your tongue idly to this matter.'
'Sam the horseman has already learned of this, so hold no fear or grief or hardship in your heart.'
'He has returned from the land of Gorgsaran because of this; the matter is out in the open now, it is no secret.'
Mehrab said, 'O moon-faced one, do not speak a single crooked word to me.'
'How can it ever fit with reason that the dust should command the wind?'
'My heart would not ache over this at all, if I could find safety from harm.'
'For who could imagine that Sam the horseman would want kinship reaching from Ahvaz to Kandahar?'
Sindokht said to him, 'O proud one, may I never need to speak a crooked word.'
'Your harm is plainly my own harm; your grieving heart is my chain.'
'This is how it is, and it has become clear to me; this same fear I had from the very start.'
'If it turns out so, it is no strange thing that we must take on so many worries.'
'Fereydun became king through the daughters of Yemen's Sarv; the world-seeking Dastan has chosen this same path.'
'Whenever a stranger becomes your kin, the mind of your ill-wisher grows dark.'
Then the renowned man commanded Sindokht, 'Rise and bring Rudabeh before me.'
Sindokht feared that hot-tempered man, that in his anguish he might drag her into the dust.
She said, 'First I want your promise,' and by her wits she washed the rancor from his heart.
The famed man gave Sindokht his word that he would do no harm to Rudabeh's face.
She said to him, 'Consider: the king of the earth may fill his heart with hatred toward us over this.'
'Then neither land nor home, nor mother nor father will remain; Rudabeh will be brought low, wiped out like water spilled.'
When Sindokht heard this, she bowed her head before him and pressed her face to the ground.
She came to her daughter with laughing lips, her radiant, day-bright face open beneath dark hair.
She gave her the good news: the warlike leopard had drawn in his claws before the fierce wild ass.
'Now quickly take off your finery and go, weeping anew, before your father.'
Rudabeh said to her, 'What is finery? Where the true treasure is at stake, what use are trinkets?'
'My soul is wedded to the son of Sam; why must I hide what is already plain?'
She went before her father like the eastern sun, drowned in rubies and gold.
She was an adorned paradise, all decoration, like the shining sun in a joyful spring.
When her father saw her, he stood amazed, and quietly called upon the Creator of the world.
He said to her, 'You whose mind is emptied of wisdom, how could this befit one of noble blood,'
'that a fairy should be wedded to a demon? May you have neither crown nor ring.'
When Rudabeh heard those words, she grew grim and turned pale as saffron.
She lowered her dark lashes over her grieving eyes and did not breathe a word.
Her father, his heart full of anger and his head full of war, went off roaring like a leopard.
The lovesick daughter went to her chamber, her rouged cheeks flecked with gold.
Both of them took refuge in God, this lovesick moon of a girl, and the lord of the court alike.