30
IV
AVT'HANDIL SETS FORTH IN QUEST OF TARIEL
176. Dionosi[1] the wise, Ezros[2] bear me witness in this: It is pitiable when the rose wherewith the ruby of Badakhshan[3] is not to be compared and whereto a reedstem serves as form,[4] becomes covered with rime and frost-bitten; wherever he wanders abroad he is wearied of abodes.
177. Avt'handil travelled over that plain at a flying pace,[5] he left the bounds of the Arabs, he journeyed in foreign lands; but separation from his sun had taken away part of his life; he said: "If I were near her now I should not shed hot tears."
178. Fresh snow had fallen, and, freezing on the rose, blasted it. He wished to strike his heart; sometimes he uplifted his knife. He said: "Fate (the world) has increased my grief ninety, an hundred fold. I have gone away from all rejoicing,[6] from harp, lyre[7] and pipe."[8]
179. The rose separated from its sun faded more and more. He said to his heart: "Be patient!" Thus he fainted not wholly. He journeyed through passing strange places on his quest, he asked tidings of wayfarers, he was friendly with them.
180. There seeks he the shedder of tears which flowed to increase the sea. The land seems to him a couch, his
- ↑ ? the Areopagite. Cf. 1468. ? a spurious quatrain.
- ↑ ? Ezra; but, according to Abul., ezros probably means "agrees," "thinks," and is from azri, opinion.
- ↑ Var. E. C., brol-balakhshi vis ar hgvandes, no longer resembles crystal and ruby of Badakhshan.
- ↑ M.
- ↑ Akhma (aghkhma), 308, 330, 850; ot'hkh akhmit'h, "with a fourfold taking" (i.e., of the horse's feet from the ground); Ch., "in four stages."
- ↑ M., "Farewell all recreation, harp, psaltery and pipe."
- ↑ Barbit'hi, Gr. and P., 472.
- ↑ Na, nai, P., 4, 1421. For musical instruments see D. I. Arakchiev; Narodnaia Piesnya Zapadnoi Gruzii (Moscow, 1908). On p. 153 na is translated as Pan's pipe, Syrinx, and a picture is given of six reeds of different length. Arakchiev says nai in Roumanian has the same meaning, but the word is not in F. Damé's dictionary. For changi, harp, 101, 120, 472, 704, (1421), 1444.
