354
மயிலை சீனி. வேங்கடசாமி ஆய்வுக்களஞ்சியம் -20
If pirates land on either side for prey,
My banks grow herdsmen who can guard their herds; Take, in these words, reply
To all complaints that threaten Median subjects.
But for the gentler phrase wherewith your king Stoops to a proffer, yet implies command,
I pray you, in return,
To give such thanks as soften most refusal.
'Thanks are a language kings are born to hear, But speak not glibly till they near their fall, To guard his Scythian realm,
220
224
On the Mede's throne the Scyth would place his daughter; 228
'I should deceive him if I said "Agreed.:"
No throne, methinks, hath room for more than one; Where a Queen's lips decide
'Thus thinking, did I wed this Scythian maid,
or peace or war, she slays the king her husband.
232
It were no marriage between Mede and Scyth; Nor wrong I unseen charms;
Love, we are told, comes like the wind from heaven.
236
'Not at our bidding, but its won free will.
And so depart - and pardon my plain speech. That which I think I say,
Offending oft - times, but deceiving never'.
So he dismissed them, if with churlish words,
With royal present, and to festal pomps,
240.
But one, by Median law
Nearest his throne, the chief priest of the Magi,
244
Having heard all with not unprescient fears,
Followed the Prince and urged recall of words
Which, sent from king to king,
Are fraught with dragon seeds, whose growth is armies.
248
