76
473. "We broke up; we could no more endure the drinking of great goblets.[1] I went into my chamber, my perception became like that of one dazed; I had no power in me, made prisoner as I was, to extinguish that fire (of love). I remembered, and the memory of being gazed on by her rejoiced me.
474. "A slave came; he told me true tidings: 'A veiled woman[2] asks tidings of you.'[3] Then I knew at once, I leaped up in all haste, with trembling heart; she came in, I saw Asmat'h, who was coming towards me.
475. "For the sake of her for whom I am dying I was pleased to see Asmat'h, as if I saw herself (Nestan). I hindered her from doing me homage, I kissed her, I took her hand and seated her near me on my couch, and greeted her: 'Blessed art thou, come as a shoot from the aloe-tree!
476. "'Tell me news of her; speak to me of nought else.' She said to me: 'I will tell thee truth; now from me (thou shalt) not (hear words uttered merely) to give pleasure. To-day ye saw each other, and tenderly were pleased; now again she commands to make known news of her through me.'
XII
LETTER OF NESTAN-DAREDJAN WRITTEN TO HER BELOVED
477. "She gave me a letter, I gazed on it; it was from the light of the face of the lands. She wrote: 'I have seen the loveliness of thy gemlike brilliancy; fair wert thou returned from battle, after urging on thy horse; not ill seems to me the cause of the flow of my tears.
478. "'If God hath given me my tongue it befits me to use it for thy praise; dead for thy sake I can by no means speak, for lacking thee I die. The sun (i.e., Nestan) made a little garden of rose and jet, as a garden for the lion; by thy sun, my self pertains to none save thee.
