He returned:
I say to myself, "I will not suspect, I will not
resent," but my heart does not follow my will.
Her answer:
Your enmity will never cease. I rely upon you, yet I
suspect your faithfulness.
In the evening the Prince came. He said: "I wrote to you not believing
the story. If you wish not to have such things said of you, come!"
She replied: "Then take me there!" But when it was dawn His Highness
returned alone. He wrote to her continually, yet he seldom visited her.
Once there was a great storm--the Prince did not inquire for her. She
thought His Highness did not sympathize with her solitude, so wrote to
him in the evening:
_The season of the withering frost is sad,_
_The autumnal wind rages_
_And the sighing of the reed never stops._
The Prince's answer was:
_The solitary reed which none but me remembers_
_How it is sighing in the raging wind!_
I am even ashamed to confess how much my mind is
completely occupied with you.
She was pleased, indeed. The Prince sent his palanquin, saying that he
was going to the hidden rendezvous to avoid the unlucky direction of
his house. The lady went thither, thinking she would follow every wish
of his. They talked tranquilly for many days and nights, and her unrest
was chased away. She was now not unwilling to live with him, but when
the time for avoiding the unlucky direction was over, she was sent back
to her home. There she thought of him more longingly than ever, and
sent a poem:
_In this hour of longing_
_Reflection brings to mind each day gone by_
_And in each one_
_Was less of sorrow._
He replied:
_Sorrows of love were less each yesterday,_
_But how can those vanished days be caught again?_
There is no other way but to resolve to come to me.
She was still cautious and could not take things so easily. She passed
many days in musing. By this time the coloured leaves [of Autumn] had
all fallen. The sky was clear and bright. One evening as the sun was
setting she felt very lonely and wrote to him:
_You art always my consolation,_
_Yet with the end of day sadness comes._
He replied:
_All are sad when the day ends,_
_Yet are you sadder than any--_
_You who wait?_