
Kavus Darkens at Siavash's Letter
From B9.25, Kavus Receives the Message. It illustrates B9.25.5–16 (to B9.25.27):
- B9.25.5Then Rostam praised the prince before the band,And placed the letter in the monarch’s hand.
- B9.25.6A scribe then read the message clear and loud;The Shah’s face blackened like a pitch-dark cloud.
- B9.25.7He cried: “The boy is young and guileless yet,And has not learned the snares the wicked set.
- B9.25.8But you are seasoned, knowing good and ill,Well versed in every turn of fortune’s will.
- B9.25.9No man in all the world can match your might;The lions learn from you the art of fight.
- B9.25.10Have you not marked the havoc he has spread,How food and sleep and rest from us have fled?
- B9.25.11I wished myself to march against the foe;My head was filled with war and wished the blow.
- B9.25.12But men advised: ‘Let Siavash command’;And so I yielded and withheld my hand.
- B9.25.13When Yazdan’s judgment called for wrongs to pay,And evil deeds had earned their evil day,
- B9.25.14You chose instead the road of private gain,And left the path of justice clear and plain.
- B9.25.15Afrasiab has dazzled you with gold,With wealth torn from the innocent of old.
- B9.25.16A hundred Turks, base-born and without fame,You do not know their fathers or their name.
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