1.
Time passed . . . [one day]
Mher said: —Uncle,
I am going to roam the world;
I cannot stay here;
There is no heir for me, no death for me.
He took his Lightning Sword,
Mounted Korkig Jelaly and rode away.
He rode on and on,
And found himself in a forest thick with trees.
Mher could not pass through.
He cut down the trees and rode on till dawn;
He came across a big rock.
Mher wanted to go on,
But the rock blocked his path.
Just then he saw a fox starting to run.
He chased the fox to the top of the mountain.
There he looked around and saw the capital of a kingdom.
He rode on ...
Until he came to a lonely cave
Where he stopped to rest.
A running gazelle, with its tongue hanging,
Suddenly caught his eye.
Mher drew his bow and arrow,
Shot and killed the gazelle.
As he looked around,
He saw a group of twenty men riding toward him.
They were cursing and saying:
—How does the son of foolhardy David of Sassoun
Dare to kill the gazelle belonging to our king!
Hearing this, Mher became angry,
Started to chase them.
Seeing Mher [so angered],
The men turned back their horses and fled.
[357] Mher rode on and on,
Until he came near to the city of King Bajig;
He dismounted and pitched his tent.
Word reached King Bajig that
Mher of Sassoun had come
And had pitched his tent outside the city.
King Bajig took with him his vizier,
Ministers and counsellors,
Came to Mher and said to him:
—At the time your father was fighting Msrah Melik,
He and I took a vow.
—What was the vow? asked Mher.
The king said: —We vowed that,
When I have a daughter and your father has a son,
My daughter will be given to his son;
God gave a son, you, to David,
And gave a daughter to me.
Will you take my daughter?
Mher said: —If I like the maiden, I will take her;
If I do not like the maiden, I will not take her.
They went to see the maiden,
Her name was Kohar Khanum;
When Mher saw the maiden, he liked her,
And the maiden liked Mher.
2.
The following morning
Kohar Khanum looked out of her window
And saw Mher asleep in a tent
With his legs stretched out uncovered.
Kohar pitied him and thought to herself:
—Mher will get sunstroke.
She put on a crimson suit, girded her weapons,
Mounted her chestnut stallion, rode out to Mher's tent,
[358] And said:
—Mher, the sun is striking you.
—What can I do? said Mher, the tent is too small.
—The tent is not small, said Kohar, it is big,
But you are an Aznahour.
Mher said: —Let me sleep . . .
Kohar said: —I am the king's son.
I want to test your strength;
You must fight with me.
If you win, I will give you
My sister, Kohar, at sunrise.
If you do not win, I will cut your head off.
Mher mounted his horse, rode to the field.
Kohar rode to the field. They faced each other.
When Mher threw his mace, Kohar caught it;
When Kohar threw her mace, Mher caught it.
Neither side won.
Kohar said: —Mher, let us stop,
We have tired out the animals.
Go to your tent and rest;
I will send you food and drink.
Kohar left Mher, she went and roasted a lamb;
With a servant carrying a pelt-bag of wine,
Some bread and the roasted lamb,
She came to the entrance of Mher's tent.
Mher ate the food, drank the wine,
Lay down, and slept till morning.
At sunrise, Kohar put on a black garment,
Girded her weapons
And rode back to Mher.
At the entrance of his tent she asked:
—Are you Mher, David's son?
—Yes, I am, said Mher.
—Are you the one who has come
To take my sister, Kohar?
—Yes, I am, said Mher.
[359] —I will put you to a test, said Kohar;
If you win, I will give you my sister, Kohar,
You can take her in the morning.
If I win, I will cut your head off.
—What is the test? asked Mher.
—We will shoot an arrow
Through your ring, said Kohar.
The one who does not shoot through the ring
Loses the match.
Mher's ring was big enough
For an arrow to pass through.
They placed the ring as a target;
Kohar shot first.
Her arrow passed through the ring without moving it.
Now it was Mher's turn.
As Mher took aim,
Kohar came and stood before him.
Mher glanced at her; she was so beautiful,
His eyes lingered on her face;
He shot an arrow, off the ring flew,
Mher's arrow did not pass through.
Kohar raised her mace then and said:
—Our terms are still the same,
I will strike your head off!
Mher said:
—No, you distracted me by standing before me;
As I glanced at your face [I missed my aim],
My arrow only hit the ring.
Kohar set the target again, and said:
—Mher, if you shoot through the ring this time,
I will keep my word
And give you my sister, Kohar,
But if you miss, I will strike your head off.
Mher took aim, shot the arrow through.
[360] Kohar then said:
—Mher, you are worthy to become Kohar's husband,
But I say again, be careful,
Don't let the sun strike you.
She went, sent another tent with a servant;
—Pitch it to cover Mher's feet, she had said.
Mher realized then that it was not the son of the king,
It was Kohar herself [who had tested him].
A few days later, Mher and Kohar were wedded.
For seven days and seven nights
They held a wedding feast,
Ate, drank, and made merry.
Mher went to Kohar's bed at night;
She laid a sword between Mher and herself.
—The King of the West is collecting
A tax from us, she said;
If you can put an end to that,
I will be your wife, you will be my husband.
They went to sleep. In the morning
Mher mounted his horse and rode away.
He reached the capital of the western king.
The king's men were terrified
When they saw Mher mounted on his horse,
Looking like a mountain on a mountain.
Gathering their army, they came to fight him.
Mher spurred on Kourkig Jelaly;
Together they fell on the king's soldiers
And slaughtered them . . .
They slaughtered them until nightfall.
At nightfall Mher turned back his horse,
Returned home to Kohar.
—I have slaughtered the King of the West, he said,
No one will collect any tax from your father again.
3.
[361] Time passed.
Tzenov Hovan sent word to Mher.
He wrote: —Mher, the brazen grandsons of Gosbad
Are getting hostile, threatening Sassoun;
I am not strong enough to fight them,
Make haste, come to our help.
Mher said:
—Kohar, take my mace, hang it on the door;
If pahlevans come, they will not molest you,
They will say, 'Mher is at home, asleep.'
Then he rode on to Sassoun.
He was overcome with emotion; he wept.
It was evening.
His uncle had locked the doors and gone to sleep.
Mher called:
[Chanting:]
—Fatherly Uncle, awake,
Awake from your sweet slumber, ah, awake!
His uncle heard a voice in his sleep, and said:
—A clear voice came to my ear
And awoke me from my deep sleep.
His wife said: —What voice, man?
This is the House of Sassoun,
You have locked the gates, are you still afraid?
Hovan said: —Yes, I am afraid.
I am aged, my kinsmen are away from me.
Mher then went to the rooftop and called:
[Chanting:]
—Fatherly Uncle, awake, I have left my home behind,
[362] I have left my mace behind to guard my home,
I have entrusted my mace to the daughter of King Bajig.
Uncle Hovan hurried out,
Kissed Mher on his forehead, and asked:
—How did you leave your home behind to come here?
Who is guarding it?
Mher said: —Only God and His angel know that
I have left home.
Hovan said: —You have hung your mace on your door;
How can it be identified?
Mher said: —There is a large jewel on the mace
That throws off a dazzling light under the sun.
[Seeing that light,] No one will dare to force my door.
At night, he said, they burn wax candles.
Their dazzling light will ward off people, too.
Hovan said: —You are welcome, thousand times.
I know you will take your father's place.
Mher asked: —Who is annoying you, Uncle?
Hovan said: —The [four] grandsons of Gosbad,
The four grandsons are like four beasts.
—I will go and capture them, said Mher;
Shall I kill them or bring them alive?
—Do as you will, said Hovan,
Either kill them or bring them alive.
Next morning, Mher mounted Kourkig Jelaly
And rode to Lerra Dasht.
He saw Gosbad's four grandsons riding toward him.
When they saw Mher, they shot at him.
An arrow hit Kourkig Jelaly's hoof
And was embedded in it.
Mher struck the arrow with his Lightning Sword,
Cut off half of it; the other half remained in the hoof.
He captured the four grandsons
[363] And brought them to his uncle.
Kourkig Jelaly raised his wounded hoof,
Uncle Hovan, seeing the wound, asked:
—What happened to your horse's hoof?
He looked at it
And saw a part of an arrow lodged in the hoof.
Uncle Hovan took gem hyacinth and emeralds,
Melted them, and poured the ointment into the wound.
The hoof healed, became stronger than it was before.
Mher took the four grandsons of Gosbad,
He nailed two of them on one side
And two on the other side of the gate.
Then he mounted Kourkig Jelaly and
Started on his way back to Kohar Khanum.
He rode on and on ...
[On the way] He met the sons of the King of Aleppo—
Forty pahlevan brothers riding on camels.
They came to Mher, exchanged greetings,
And said to him:
—We are forty brothers;
If you join us, we will be forty-one brothers.
Mher said: —I will be a brother of yours.
But tell me, what city do you come from?
—From Aleppo, they said.
—What are you doing here? asked Mher.
—We have a sister, they said,
Who has seized our father's throne
And driven us away.
She is ruling our land.
Mher said: —Take me to her.
I want to see what kind of a sister she is
Who rules your land.
They said: —If you want to know,
[364] Our sister was born a cannibal.
She has devoured our father and mother
And the entire population of the city.
Mher went, seized the cannibal witch—
The sister of the forty pahlevans—
And with one blow struck off her head.
Then he went to the forty pahlevans and told them:
—I killed your cannibal sister,
You can return to your city.
They kissed Mher's hands and feet and said to him:
—We could not destroy that witch;
Now that you have killed her and saved our lives,
You can have the kingdom of our land if you wish,
We will be your servants to the day of our death.
—I don't want anything from you, Mher said,
I don't want to be a king,
I don't want to be the lord of any city,
I am Mher, the son of David of Sassoun,
I cannot stay here,
I can have no heir, I have no death.
4.
From Aleppo Mher rode on until he reached Baghdad.
He saw an aged man sitting by the road,
Mher asked: —What is going on in Baghdad?
Who is the King of Baghdad?
The man said: —I do not know the king,
But they say he is a grandson of the Khalif.
Mher then asked: —Where is the tomb of Baghdasar?
—It is across from the king's palace, he said.
Mher said:
—Baghdasar is my kinsman from the House of Sassoun,
Will you point his tomb to me?
He pointed it out, took him there, Mher saw it.
[365] Mher dismounted his horse [while] in the garden,
Prostrated himself before the tomb,
Offered a prayer. —The imprint of his hands
Can be seen where he has prayed.
Mher left Baghdad, rode on
Until he reached the city of Gezir.
There is a river, named Gezir-Shat,
That flows through the city of Gezir;
One hundred and forty rivulets meet
And flow into this river.
Gezir-Shat had deluged the city three times.
Mher came there, brought a huge rock,
Dropped it into the river at the center of the city.
The river was divided into two branches;
One branch flows on one side
And the other branch on the other side.
The city was never deluged again.
On that rock Mher then built Brcha-Balak,
The fortress that can never be destroyed.
From Gezir Mher rode on to his home
In the city of King Bajig.
He found his mace hanging on the door as he had left it.
No one had entered his house.
Mher went inside
And found his wife, Kohar, dead on the couch.
He took her hand and saw it held a letter,
In which she had written:
—When you return and find me here,
I beg you, carry me back to Sassoun
And bury me beside Khantout Khanum.
Mher took up Kohar's body
And carried it back to his home, Sassoun.
There he found that his uncle had passed away, too.
He built a tomb and buried Kohar beside Khantout.
[366] Then he had, forty masses sung,
Masses alsojor the repose of the souls
Of all the dead of the House of Sassoun.
He started to leave,
But he found the earth would not sustain his steps.
He turned back, went to his mother's tomb and pleaded:
[Chanting:]
—Mother mine, arise; Mother mine, arise,
I am Mher, the child of your breast;
You carried me near your heart for nine months
And endured much suffering on earth.
Without aim I roamed the world endlessly
And did not find a mother as dear as you.
A voice came from his mother's tomb:
[Chanting:]
—What can I do, my son, what can I do?
Feature and complexion are faded away from my face,
Light is vanished from my eyes,
Serpent and scorpion nestle over me;
You have roamed the world enough.
You have roamed the world enough . . .
Akravou Kar [Crow's Rock] is your haven,
Go to Akravou Kar.
Mher wept and wept.
No further sound came from the tomb of his mother.
He then went to his father's tomb, wept and pleaded:
—Father mine, arise; Father mine, arise,
I belong no more to the great House of Sassoun.
I belong to this world no more.
Father mine, arise; Father mine, arise,
[367] M'rmour snow is fallen today,
Your son Mher's feet are in m'rmour pain,
Father mine, arise; Father mine, arise,
I have been longing for your fragrant presence,
I have been longing for your soothing words,
And wandering the world in loneliness.
A voice came from the tomb of his father:
[Chanting:]
—What can I do, my son? What can I do?
Feature and complexion are faded away from my face,
Light is vanished from my eyes,
Serpent and scorpion nestle over me;
You have roamed the world enough,
You have roamed the world enough . . .
Akravou Kar is your haven.
When the world is destroyed and rebuilt,
When the ground can sustain your horse,
Then the world will be yours.
He wept and wept,
No further sound came from the tomb of his father.
Mher rode to Vosdanah Gaban.
As he arrived at Vosdanah Gaban,
[368] The prince of that city lassoed and captured Mher.
Mher, tethered with his horse, invoked:
—In the name of the Bread and Wine, the Eternal Lord,
And High Madonna of Marout,
And struck [with his sword], cut the bonds,
And set Kourkig Jelaly free.
He then pleaded with God
Either to give him another combat
Or release his soul.
God then sent seven angels, mounted on horse,
To combat Mher.
They fought from midday to nightfall.
Mher wielded his Lightning Sword,
But the sword would not smite the angels,
And the earth would not sustain Kourkig Jelaly;
His hoofs would sink into the ground.
The ground had lost its firmness
And would not sustain Mher.
—Hai, hoy! It is in vain, said Mher,
The ground is grown old and weary, too;
It can no longer sustain the hoofs of my horse.
From midday to nightfall he struggled to ride on,
But Kourkig Jelaly's hoofs kept sinking into the earth.
Mher dismounted and led the horse
To the foot of a mountain near Van,
Where he saw a rock.
People call this rock the Rock of Van.
Mher then said to himself:
—Let me strike the rock with my sword:
If my sword cuts the rock, I am not guilty;
If it does not, I am guilty.
As he struck it with his Lightning Sword,
[369] The rock split in two.
Mher and Kourkig Jelaly rode in,
The rock came together and closed them in.
Kerry Toros died of grief
When he heard that Mher was confined in the rock.
It is said that on every Friday
Water drips from the rock.
That water, they say, drips from Kourkig Jelaly;
And travelers passing by the rock on Fridays
Hear the neighing of Kourkig Jelaly.
[372]
We pray for mercy on Dzovinar,
Forty mercies for Sanasar.
We pray for mercy on Baghdasar,
Forty mercies for Deghtzoun Dzam.
We pray for mercy on Kerry Toros,
Forty mercies for Tzenov Hovan.
We pray for mercy on Medz Mher,
Forty mercies for Armaghan.
A thousand mercies on stalwart David,
Forty mercies for Khantout Khanum.
We pray for mercy on Pokr Mher,
Forty mercies for Kohar Khanum.
We pray for mercy, forty mercies,
For our master—the great minstrel—
Who told us this tale;
We pray for mercy, a thousand mercies,
For the souls of the parents of those
Who are listening to this tale.