How Khusrau Parwíz fought with Bahrám Chúbína and how Kút, the Rúman, was slain

When Sol rose o'er the darksome hills the war-cry
Ascended from both hosts; thou wouldst have said:—
“Earth is a turning sky and swords eclipse
The sun!” The troops drew up to left and right;
Earth was an iron mountain. At the neighing
Of chargers and the shouting of the hosts
The desert fled for shelter to the hills.
When brave Bahrám Chúbína saw he drew
His glittering glaive, his heart conceived no fears
Though raging lions' hearts were rent asunder.*
He went himself to view the left and right,
And told Yalán-sína: “Take thou the centre,
And keep before the army for I champion
The troops to-day and tarry though they flee.”
Khusrau Parwíz surveyed the battlefield,
And saw the whole world blackened by the hosts;
The bright sun's face was like a lion's maw,
And thou hadst said: “The clouds are raining swords!”
Then Niyátús, Bandwí, and Gustaham
Went with the Sháh from battlefield to height.
Those leaders took their station on Mount Dúk,
Their eyes upon their followers, and thence
The Sháh surveyed his host, the right and left,
The centre and the wings. The tymbals sounded
From both sides and the eager warriors
Advanced to fight. “Earth is an iron mountain,”
Thou wouldst have said, “heaven lost in foemen's dust!”
Now when Khusrau Parwíz saw matters thus,
Saw heaven as woof and earth as warp, he prayed

Thus in the olden tongue: “O Thou more pure,
And higher than the high! who but Thyself,
O holy Judge! can tell which will return
Exulting from the fight to-day? The spear
Of him whose fortune halteth hath but thorn
Or weed for point.”

Khusrau Parwíz was full

Of care, both heart and soul; the world appeared
A brake to him, for from among the troops
Kút, like a dark hill in his iron mail,
Brake from the centre to the height and cried:—
“Illustrious monarch! point me out the slave,
The doer of dív's work, 'gainst whom thou foughtest
When in Írán and fleddest while he triumphed.
Look to the army's left and right, and find him
Among the chieftains. I will teach him warfare,
And show what hearts and might true warriors have.”
Thereat all mindful of the former fight
The Sháh was vexed at heart because Kút said:—
“Thou didst let fall thy knightly equipage,
And flee before a slave,” but answered not;
His heart was full, he sighed. At length he said:—
“Approach yon rider on the piebald steed;
He will attack thee when he seeth thee;
Then fly not lest thou bite thy lips in shame.”
Kút sped back like the wind and spear in hand
Came furious as a maddened elephant
Upon the battlefield. Yalán-sína
Called to Bahrám Chúbína, saying: “Beware,
Brave cavalier! A dív armed with a lance,
And with a lasso in his straps, hath come
Like elephant gone mad.”

He heard, unsheathed

Like wind his falchion and proclaimed his name,
Which when the Sháh observed he rose and peered
Down from the mountain-top upon the pair,
Wet-eyed and wroth of heart. Now when the Rúman
Charged with his lance the aspirant gripped his steed,
Escaped the thrust, raised to his face his shield,
And clave his foe asunder to the breast.
The sword's clash reached Khusrau Parwíz who laughed
To see the stroke struck by Bahrám Chúbína,
While valaint Niyátús frown-blinded raged
Because the Sháh had laughed, and said: “Great sir!
One should not laugh in war whereof thou knowest

Naught but the sleights, and when thou wouldst avenge
Thine ancestors I see thy heart asleep.
Men will not see in any peopled part
Of Rúm or of Írán one like to Kút,
Hazára's son, whose slaying made thee laugh.
Know this, that fortune hath deserted thee.”
He made reply: “I laugh not at his slaughter,
Or at his body which is cleft in twain.
Know this that he who mocketh shall receive
Himself a buffet from the turning sky.
He said to me: ‘Thou fleddest from a slave
With whom thou hadst not prowess to contend.’
But fleeing from this slave who striketh blows
In such wise in the battle is no shame.”
Bahrám Chúbína for his part exclaimed:—
“Ye chiefs of glorious birth—Yálán-sína,
Rám and Ízid Gashasp! bind ye the slain
Upon his charger and thus send him back
To his own camp for their own Sháh to see.”
They hasted to secure upon the saddle
The corpse of Kút, and then the charger sped
Back to the camp with that exalted chief.
Khusrau Parwíz was grieved at heart for Kút.
They loosed the knotted lasso from the slain,
Then by the Sháh's direction dried the body,
And having filled with musk and stitched the wounds,
Sewed up the corpse in linen and dispatched it,
All armed and girded, unto Cæsar, saying:—
“If this infernal slave can give such blows
In time of battle with his scimitar
I am not shamed for having fled from him.”
The Rúmans were heart-broken ere they fought,
And sorely stricken; their patricians wept;
They all were tearful and dispirited.
Ten thousand of the mighty men advancing
All prelates,* warriors, and cavaliers,
Charged so that hills split at the cry of them.
The clash of arms, the shoutings of the chiefs,
The blows of scimitar and massive mace,
Rose. Thou hadst said: “It is a raging sea,
And heaven as it turneth crieth ‘Blood.’”
The hosts were blocked and sundered by the slain;
An army of those Rúman chiefs had fallen.
Khusrau Parwíz was stricken to the heart,
And had the wounds of those still living dressed.
They piled the corpses mountain-high; men called it
“The harvest of Bahrám.” Khusrau Parwíz
Lost faith in Rúmans for he said: “If they
Bear them like this again know that their host
Will cease to be and all their swords of steel
Prove merely wax.”

Then said he to Sarkab:—

“To-morrow take no Rúmans to engage,
But rest and I will lead the Íránian host
To battle.”

To the Íránians he said:—

“No more delay; to-morrow ye must fight,”
And one and all replied: “We will not fail
To level to the plain mount, waste, and dale.”