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58. They said: "Some unpleasant thought has come into the king's mind, for nothing has happened here to make him sad." Quoth Avt'handil: "Let us inquire, O Sograt, let him tell us why he is displeased with us; let us venture on some pleasantry; why hath he shamed us?"
59. Sograt and the graceful Avt'handil arose; each filled[1] his winecup, and with meek mien drew nigh. Then with smiling faces they cast themselves on their knees before the king. The vizier sportively spoke thus, with eloquent words:
60. "You look sad, O king; there is no longer a smile on your face. Thou art right, for, lo! your daughter with lavish hand, has given away all your rich and costly treasure. Make her not king at all; why bring grief on thyself?"[2]
61. When the king heard him he looked up with a smile. He marvelled how he had ventured thus, how he dared to speak such words! "Well hast thou done!" He thanked his vizier. He confirmed this by what he said: "He who lays avarice to my charge is a lying chatterer.[3]
62. "That afflicts me not, O vizier. This it is that troubles me: Old age draws nigh; I have spent the days of youth, and nowhere in our dominions is there a man who hath learned from me the knightly[4] arts.[5]
63. "It is true I have a daughter tenderly nurtured, but God has given me no son[6]; I suffer in this fleeting life. There is none to be compared with me in archery or at the game of ball.[7] It is true that Avt'handil resembles me somewhat, thanks to my teaching."[8]
- ↑ Var. E. C., aighes, raised. The king's guests would have their cups filled by the attendants.
- ↑ Note the mixture of second person singular and second person plural throughout the poem. Var. E. C. makes all the lines of this quatrain end in a instead of o.
- ↑ Var. E. C. for chemi dzrakhva reads zrakhva chemis.
- ↑ Samamatzoni, fit for men.
- ↑ Zne, custom, art, character.
- ↑ For a similar use of qma to indicate the masculine, cf. 492, 1444 (M., xii., xxxv.).
- ↑ Burt'hi, 20, 804, 1100.
- ↑ Var. E. C., shemgavs for shemtsevs.
