How Khusrau Parwíz loved Shírín, how they parted, how he met her again while hunting and sent her to his Bower*

Khusrau Parwíz like other paladins,
While yet his father lived, was young and bold,
And had for mate Shírín who was to him
As his bright eyes. He cared for none beside
Among the fair and daughters of the night,
* But parted from her for a while when he
Came to be king and had to roam the world
Unrestingly, for all his work was then
To fight Bahrám Chúbína while the Fair
Wept day and night o'er his defect in love.
* It was so that one day he willed to hunt,
And all things were prepared as in the times
Of former Sháhs. They took three hundred steeds,
Caparisoned with gold, for that famed King,
While of his loyal servitors there fared
Afoot a thousand and eight score, and carried
Two-headed darts. A thousand and two score
Bare scimitars and wore brocade above
Their coats of mail. Seven hundred falconers
Came next with royal falcons, sparrow-hawks,
And gos-hawks, while behind them mounted men—
Three hundred keepers of the cheetahs—fared,
And pards and lions chained three score and ten,
All harnessed with brocade of Chín, all trained,
And furnished with gold muzzles. For the deer-hunt
There were eight hundred hounds with golden leashes.
Behind them came, to harp on hunting-days,

Two thousand minstrels all on camel-back,
And crowned with gold. Five hundred camels went
Ahead, and 'twas their special task to bear
The seats, pavilions, and tent-enclosures,
The tents and shielings for the quadrupeds.
There were two hundred slaves to kindle censers,
And to burn aloe-wood and ambergris
Therein. Before the Sháh two hundred youths
Of those attending on him went with posies
Of saffron and narcissus that the scent
Might meet him from all quarters as he came,
Preceded by a hundred water-bearers
To sprinkle all the road, and thou hadst said:—
“They pour rose-water over ambergris”
Lest any sudden blast might scatter dust
Upon that Sháh of glorious lineage.
Three hundred youthful princes rode with him,
Arrayed in yellow, red, and violet.
The king of kings had with him Káwa's standard,
Wore crown and earrings, royal cloth of gold,
A golden girdle, armlets, and a torque,
And jewelled buttons.

Now Shírín, on hearing:—

“The host, preceded by the mighty Sháh,
Hath come,” put on a yellow vest musk-scented,
And made her visage like pomegranate-blooms.
She wore a red robe of brocade from Rúm
With patterns jewelled on a ground of gold,
And placed upon her head a royal crown
Set with the jewels of a paladin.
She left her jocund hall, went on the roof,
And in her day of youth showed naught of joy,
But waited till Khusrau Parwíz arrived,
Then let the tear-drops fall upon her cheeks.
At sight of him she rose, showed all her height,
And spake to him with sweetness of the past.
The twin Narcissi bathed the Cercis-bloom,
The first all languishment, the last all health.
All tears* and beauty, eagerly she cried
Thus in the olden tongue: “O Sháh! Great Lion!
O framed to be leader of the host!
O blesséd hero, lion-conqueror!
Where is that love of thine? Where are the tears
Of blood once stanched by looking on Shírín?
Where all those days which once we turned to nights,
Tears in our hearts and eyes, smiles on our lips?
Where are our loves, our troth, our bonds, our oaths?”
E'en as she spake she shed blood-drops of gall
Upon her guise of lapis-lazuli,
*

And when he heard and looked and saw Shírín
He wept for her, his face hued like the sun.
He sent a led horse all betrapped with gold,
And forty honest eunuchs, men of Rúm,
To bear her to his golden bower, his house
Begemmed, then went to hunt with hawks and cheetahs.
When he had had enough of hill and plain
He went back to the city joyfully.
They decked it and the roads because the Sháh
Was coming from the chase; the trumpet-calls,
And sounds of singing, ravelled all the air,
And thus the royal Fruit of that tall Bough
* Passed through the city to his lofty home,
While from his bower Shírín came forth and kissed
His feet and hands and head. At that time spake
The Sháh to the high priest: “Indulge no thoughts
Save good concerning us, bestow on me
This fair-cheeked lady as my lawful wife,
And publish the glad tidings to the world.”
So he espoused her in the ancient way
With all the rites and sanctions of his day.