Gív, when he reached the presence of his sire,
Informed him of the answer word for word,
And said: “Array the host upon the spot
Where thou wilt fight; Pírán hath no idea
Of peace, no room for justice in his heart.
I told him all thy words, appealed to him
In all ways. When the fault proved clearly theirs
He sent the king a camel-post to say:—
‘Gúdarz and Gív are come to fight, and troops
Must be dispatched to me forthwith.’ Thereat

Came reinforcements from Afrásiyáb,
And crossed the river while we were returning.
Now bind the drums upon the elephants
For battle since Pírán forestalleth us.”
Gúdarz said: “He is sick of life. I thought
No other of the miscreant, and yet
By order of the monarch of the world
I had to send—there was no remedy—
And now the Sháh hath proved him to the heart.
I spake to that effect before the Sháh
When he gave orders for the troops to march:
I said to him: ‘Put from thy heart the love
Of one whose heart and tongue do not accord.
Pírán's whole love is for the Turkmans; let
The Sháh wash hands of him.’”

The brave Pírán

Led in Gív's tracks his army lion-like,
And when Gúdarz knew that the host approached
He beat the tymbals, marched out from Raibad,
And drew his army up on that broad plain
With mountains in the rear. The day's light failed
What time Pírán marched forth from Kanábad.
A hundred thousand Turkman cavaliers
Went girt for battle, mailed, and carrying
Long spears and Indian swords. The embattled hosts
Looked like two mountains with their iron helms.
Then there arose the sound of clarions,
And thou hadst said: “The mountains are astir!”
The hosts stretched from Raibad to Kanábad:
The vales and plains were black and blue with them.
The lances' heads were stars, the swords were suns,
The clouds were dust-clouds and the ground was iron.

The earth re-echoed with the warriors' shouts,
The sky was iron with the helms and spears.
Gúdarz surveyed the army of Túrán,
Then all in motion like a heaving sea,
Flag following flag and troop succeeding troop
Without a break till night rose from the hills.
Both hosts placed elephants to bar the way,
Lit up the watch-fires, and thou wouldst have said
At all the shouting of the eager chiefs:—
“The world is Áhriman's and full of foes
From skirt to sleeve!” That darksome night the rocks
Were riven to their cores with tymbal-din!
The dawn ascended from the sombre mountains,
And then the leader of Írán bestrode
A fresh horse in the presence of the host,
And made his dispositions on all sides.
The army's right wing rested on a hill,
Undaunted mid the battles of the brave,
While to the left a river ran, as apt
As soul for body. In the front were ranged
The spearmen with the footmen in their rear
With coats of mail and iron-piercing shafts,
And bows flung o'er their arms. The soldiers' blood
Boiled in their veins. Arrear of these there came
The warlike cavaliers, whose falchions robbed
The fire of lustre, then the elephants
Like mountains; earth was wearied with the tramp.
Full in the centre of the host and shining
Moon-like with jewels stood the glorious standard.
What with the flashing of the blue steel swords
Beneath the shadow of the flag of Káwa
Thou wouldst have said: “The sky, this darksome
night,
Is shedding stars!”

Gúdarz arrayed the host

Like Paradise and planted in the garden
Of loyalty the cypress of revenge.

He gave the army's right to Faríburz:
Hajír was with the baggage in the rear.
Guráza, chiefest scion of Gívgán,
And that o'er-looker of the Kaian throne,
Zawára, went to aid, and ranked themselves
With, Faríburz. Gúdarz then bade Ruhhám:—
“O thou, the inspirer of crown, throne, and wisdom!
Go with the cavaliers toward the left.
Like Sol from Aries on New Year's Day
Illuminate the army by thy Grace,
And nurse it tenderly, but like a lion
Smite foemen with thy chief-consuming steel.”
Ruhhám went forth with his companions,
With Gustaham, and matchless Gazhdaham,
And Furúhil whose arrows pierced the sky.
Gúdarz then bade ten thousand cavaliers
On barded steeds to go with Gív, committing
The rear to him, a post for men of war;
Gurgín and Zanga bare him company.
A banner and three hundred horse to guard
The army's river-flank, as many more
To guard the mountain-flank, Gúdarz dispatched.
A watchman went upon the mountain-top,
And kept his neck outstretched both night and day
Above the army, with his eyes intent
To watch the movements of the Turkman troops,
And shout, if he perceived an ant's foot move,
To rouse Gúdarz, who ordered so that field
That sun and moon were eager to engage.
The valiant crocodile will not affright
The host whose leader is well seen in fight.
Gúdarz then took the post of chief command
To guard the army from the enemy.
He raised the flag that gladdeneth the heart,
And gave the chiefs that battled at the centre
To each his station, summoning them all.
Behind him was Shídúsh, Farhád before.
Thus posted in their midst Gúdarz, their leader,
Had Káwa's standard over-shadowing him,
And dimming sun and moon.

Pírán from far

Looked forth upon that host, upon that pomp
And circumstance of war, and hearts whence care
And travail ebbed. Dale, desert, mount, and waste
Were full of spears, and rein was linked to rein.
The chieftain of Túrán was sorely grieved,
And raged at fortune's gloomy sun. Thereafter,
Surveying his own host, the battlefield
Displeasured him; he saw not room to fight
Or rank his troops, and in his anger smote
His hands together, being forced to form
As best he might since he must charge the brave.
Then of his own chiefs and his men of war,
And of the warriors of Afrásiyáb,
That longed for fight, he chose him thirty thousand,
Men fit for war and armed with scimitars.
He gave the centre to Húmán—a host
Of lion-flinging, battle-loving troops.
Andarímán he summoned with Arjásp,
He gave Burjásp the chief command of both,
And put the army's left wing in their keeping
With thirty thousand gallant warriors.
The brave Lahhák and Farshídward drew up
With thirty thousand heroes of the fray
Upon the right, and earth turned black with iron.

He sent the brave Zangúla and Kulbád,
Along with Sipahram, the good at need,
And spearmen twice five thousand, to support
The cavaliers, the wielders of the sword.
Then with ten thousand warriors of Khutan
Rúín in brazen panoply marched forth
To ambush like a lion in the wood,*

With outposts on the river and the mountain
To threaten the Íránian general,
On whom, if he advanced beyond his lines
And ventured forward on Pírán himself,
Rúín the chief should fall, as 'twere a lion,
And take him boldly in the rear. Pírán
Placed likewise scouts upon the mountain-top
To watch by day and count the stars by night,
That if a horseman of the Íránians
Should turn his reins toward the Turkman chief,
The keeper of the watch should raise a cry,
And all the battlefield be roused thereby.