Story No. 9

I saw a learned man who had fallen for someone, and his secret had spilled into the open. He endured endless cruelty and bore it with boundless patience. Once I said to him gently: I know your love for this beloved has no fault in it, and that your affection is not built on some slip; yet even so, it does not befit the dignity of scholars to disgrace themselves and put up with the rudeness of the ill-mannered. He said: My friend, take your reproaching hand off the hem of my life. Many times I have thought over the very sense you point to, and bearing his cruelty comes easier to me than being patient without the sight of him. The wise say: it is easier to set your heart to struggle than to lift your eyes away from what you long to behold. Whoever cannot get through life without someone must bear it, even if that someone wrongs him. One day, worn out, I told him, Enough, spare me! and for many days after I begged forgiveness for that word. A true friend does not turn away from a friend; so I set my heart on whatever pleases him. If in kindness he calls me close to him, or in anger drives me off, that is his to decide.