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When he had made an end of reciting these verses, he wept and all the troops wept with him; then he threw himself on the tomb, wild with grief, and the Vizier repeated the words of the poet:
That which fleets past thou hast left and won what endureth for aye, And even as thou are the folk, that were and have passed away;
And yet it was not of thy will that thou quittedst this house of the world; For here hadst thou joy and delight of all that befell in thy day.
How oft hast thou proven thyself a succour and shield from the foe, When the arrows and javelins of war flew thick in the midst of the fray!
I see that this world’s but a cheat and a vanity after all, And ever to seek out the Truth all creatures desire and essay!
The Lord of the Empyrean vouchsafe thee in heaven to dwell And the Guide assign thee therein a goodly sojourn, I pray!
I bid thee adieu with a sigh and I see, for the loss of thee, The East and the West o’ershadowed with mourning and dismay.
When the Vizier had finished, he wept sore, and the tears fell from his eyes, like a network of pearls. Then came forward one of Sherkan’s boon-companions, weeping till his eyes resembled rivers, and recalled the dead man’s noble qualities, reciting the following cinquains:
Where be thy giving, alas! and the hand of thy bounty fled? They lie in the earth, and my body is wasted for drearihead.
O guide of the camel-litters,[1] (may God still gladden thy stead!) My tears on my cheeks have written, in characters of red,
That which would both rejoice thee and fill thee with pain and dread!
By Allah, ’twixt me and my heart, not a word of thee is said Nor doth the thought of thy grace and thy glory pass through my head,
But that mine eyes are wounded by dint of the tears I shed! Yea, if to rest on another my glance be ever led,
May my lids be drawn in slumber by longing for the dead!
Then Zoulmekan and Dendan wept sore and the whole army lamented aloud; after which they all withdrew to
- ↑ i.e. protector of the women that ride therein.
