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faced, martial in heart.[1] He said: "I forsook roses, and behold me here woeful!"
822. I cannot now tell the words then spoken by that knight, or what he discoursed and lamented with such elegance. Sometimes his eyes reddened (with their tears) the rose (of his cheeks) scratched by his nail. When he saw the caves he was glad; he went up to the door of the cave.
823. When Asmat'h perceived him, she went to meet him, her tears fell fast; she rejoiced so greatly that she will never have such joy again. The knight dismounted, embraced her, kissed her, and conversed with her. When a man has waited for a man, the coming pleases him wondrously.
824. The knight said to the damsel: "Where and how is thy lord?" The damsel wept with tears which might have fed the sea.[2] She said: "When thou wert gone, he roamed about, for it irked him to be in the cave; now I know nought of him, either by sight or tidings."
825. The knight was pained as if some lance had struck him in the midst of his heart. He said to Asmat'h: "O sister, not thus should a man be! How could he break his oath! I deceived him not; how could he be false to me! If he could not keep it, why did he promise? If he promised me, why did he lie?
826. "Since save for him I counted not this world as grief, why did he forget me when I departed? Why could he not endure, what troubled him? How dared he break the oath he had sworn? But why should I marvel at evil from my fate!"
827. Again the maiden spoke: "Thou art justified in such sorrow; but when thou shalt judge aright—suspect me not of complaisance[3]—is not heart needed to fulfil oath and promise? He, bereft of heart, awaits only the curtailment of his days.
828. "Heart, mind and thought[4] depend one upon
