The Man in the Panther's Skin/Chapter 16

by Shot'ha Rust'havelli

XVI

TARIEL'S AID TO P'HRIDON, AND THEIR VICTORY OVER THEIR FOES

596. "He was healed, and able to fight and use horse and armour. We prepared galleys^[1] and the number of a host of troops^[2]; it needed a man to pray (to God) for some aid for those who gazed upon them.^[3]—Now will I tell thee of that knight's battle, the punisher of his adversaries.

597. "I perceived their design,^[4] and saw them donning their headgear.^[5] Ships met me, I know not if there were eight (in all); swiftly I threw myself upon them; they began to row; I struck (one of the ships) with my heel and upset it; like women they bewailed themselves.

598. "I betook myself to yet another, and seized the lip (prow) of the ship with my hand; I drowned them in the sea, I slew them; they had no opportunity for battle. The rest fled from me, they made for their harbour^[6]; all who saw me marvelled, they praised me, they hated me not.

599. "We crossed the sea, we landed. Mounted they threw themselves on us. Again we engaged; there began the vicissitudes of battle. P'hridon's bravery and agility pleased me then; in warfare a lion, in face a sun, that aloe-tree fought.

600. "With his sword he cast down both his cousins, he cut their hands clean off; thus he crippled them^[7]; he led them away bound by the arms; the one did not abandon the two. He made their knights to weep, his knights to vaunt themselves.^[8]

601. "Their soldiers fled from us, we threw ourselves upon them, we scattered them; swiftly we seized the city, we wasted no time; we broke their legs with stones, we tanned their skin into leather.^[9] Kill me,^[10] if it was possible to empty the treasure both by lading and stowing!

602. "P'hridon inspected the treasures and put his seals upon them; he himself led away his two vanquished cousins; he shed their blood in exchange for his, and poured it out on the fields. Of me they said: 'Thanks to God who has planted aloe-trees!'

603. "We went back (to P'hridon's). The triumph exhibited by the citizens was heard; suppliants there laid hold on^[11] the heart of beholders. All uttered praise to me and Nuradin, in a panegyric^[12]; they said to us: 'Through the strength of your (right) arms their blood still flows!'

604. "The soldiers acclaimed P'hridon as king and me as king of kings, themselves as subjects^[13] and me as sovereign of them all. I was gloomy, they could never find me culling roses; they knew not my story, there it was not lightly spoken of.

1. Catargha, Turk.
2. Ritzkhvi spat'ha djarisa.
3. ? because they were of such might.
4. To begin.
5. Chabalakhi, 1384, veil of mail, helmet.
6. Sakulbage. Ch., "building with shops on ground, and dwelling-house above." ? dock, boat-house.
7. Sapqari, 180, 953, 1529; also a prisoner, in the sense of one who cannot use his limbs.
8. Amaqi, qmani? servants.
9. For nata, cf. 261. An obscure passage.
10. Momcalith! an expletive. Cf. 550, 612, 1142.
11. Daabmidian, they bound.
12. Keba, 5, 1027.
13. Mona, slave, vassal.