“Ah me, I muse what this young fox may mean! 
False, wily, boastful, are these Tartar boys. 
For if I now confess this thing he asks,
And hide it not, but say:  Rustum is here! 350
He will not yield indeed, nor quit our foes,
But he will find some pretext not to fight,
And praise my fame, and proffer courteous gifts
A belt or sword perhaps, and go his way. 
And on a feast-tide, in Afrasiab’s hall, 355
In Samarcand, he will arise and cry: 
’I challenged once, when the two armies camp’d
Beside the Oxus, all the Persian lords
To cope with me in single fight; but they
Shrank, only Rustum dared; then he and I 360
Changed gifts, and went on equal terms away.’ 
So will he speak, perhaps, while men applaud;
Then were the chiefs of Iran shamed through me.”

And then he turn’d, and sternly spake aloud:—­
“Rise! wherefore dost thou vainly question thus 365
Of Rustum?  I am here, whom thou hast call’d
By challenge forth; make good thy vaunt, deg. or yield! deg.367
Is it with Rustum only thou wouldst fight? 
Rash boy, men look on Rustum’s face and flee! 
For well I know, that did great Rustum stand 370
Before thy face this day, and were reveal’d,
There would be then no talk of fighting more. 
But being what I am, I tell thee this—­
Do thou record it in thine inmost soul: 
Either thou shalt renounce thy vaunt and yield, 375
Or else thy bones shall strew this sand, till winds
Bleach them, or Oxus with his summer-floods,
Oxus in summer wash them all away.”

He spoke; and Sohrab answer’d, on his feet:—­
“Art thou so fierce?  Thou wilt not fright me so deg.! deg.380
I am no girl to be made pale by words. 
Yet this thou hast said well, did Rustum stand
Here on this field, there were no fighting then. 
But Rustum is far hence, and we stand here. 
Begin! thou art more vast, more dread than I, 385
And thou art proved, I know, and I am young—­
But yet success sways with the breath of Heaven. 
And though thou thinkest that thou knowest sure
Thy victory, yet thou canst not surely know. 
For we are all, like swimmers in the sea, 390
Poised on the top of a huge wave of fate,
Which hangs uncertain to which side to fall. 
And whether it will heave us up to land,
Or whether it will roll us out to sea,
Back out to sea, to the deep waves of death, 395
We know not, and no search will make us know;
Only the event will teach us in its hour.”