Thus hidden love doth torture youthful breasts.”
From “The Man in the Panther’s Skin” we learn that the ideal hero of Rustaveli’s times was distinguished for bravery, truthfulness, loyalty to promises, self-sacrifice, munificence, and burning love.
“Falsehood’s the root of all the thousand ills
That curse our race. Lying and faithlessness twin sisters are.
Why should I try to cheat my fellow-man?
Is this the use to which my learning should be put?
Ah, no! far other aims our hearts inspire,
We learn, that we may near the angelic choir.”
The most famous line in the whole poem is, perhaps, the one which says:—