But this I will say: to-day and
yesterday make the third time I have seen thee. The first time thou
wert happy and calm, and no shadow of trouble was on thee; the second
time thine happy days were waning, though thou scarce knewest it; but
to-day and yesterday thou art constrained by the bonds of grief, and
wouldest loosen them if thou mightest.'
She said: 'What meanest thou? How knowest thou this? How may a
stranger partake in my joy and my sorrow?'
He said: 'As for yesterday, all the people might see thy grief and
know it. But when I beheld thee the first time, I saw thee that thou
wert more fair and lovely than all other women; and when I was away
from thee, the thought of thee and thine image were with me, and I
might not put them away; and oft at such and such a time I wondered
and said to myself, what is she doing now? though god wot I was
dealing with tangles and troubles and rough deeds enough. But the
second time I beheld thee, when I had looked to have great joy in the
sight of thee, my heart was smitten with a pang of grief; for I saw
thee hanging on the words and the looks of another man, who was
light-minded toward thee, and that thou wert troubled with the
anguish of doubt and fear.
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