“Long have I chid thee but my chiding hindereth thee not * How often would my verse with writ o’ hand ensnare thee, ah! Then keep thy passion hidden deep and ever unrevealed, * And if thou dare gainsay me Earth shall no more bear thee, ah! And if, despite my warning, thou dost to such words return, * Death’s Messenger[FN#275] shall go his rounds and dead declare thee, ah! Soon shall the wold’s fierce chilling blast o’erblow that corse o’ thine; * And birds o’ the wild with ravening bills and beaks shall tear thee, ah! Return to righteous course; perchance that same will profit thee; * If bent on wilful aims and lewd I fain forswear thee, ah!”
When she had made an end of her writing this, she cast the writ from her hand in wrath, and the old woman picked it up and went with it to Ardashir. When he read it to the last he knew that she had not softened to him, but only redoubled in rage against him and that he would never win to meet her, so he bethought himself to write her an answer invoking Allah’s help against her. Thereupon he indited these couplets,
“O Lord, by the Five Shaykhs, I pray deliver me * From love, which gars me bear such grief and misery. Thou knowest what I bear for passion’s fiery flame; * What stress of sickness for that merciless maid I dree. She hath no pity on the pangs to me decreed; * How long on weakly wight shall last her tyranny? I am distraught for her with passing agonies * And find no friend, O folk! to hear my plaint and plea. How long, when Night hath drooped her pinions o’er the world, * Shall I lament in public as in privacy? For love of you I cannot find forgetfulness; * And how forget when Patience taketh wings to flee? O thou wild parting-bird[FN#276] say is she safe and sure * From shift and change of time and the world’s cruelty?”