After the lapse of a long time, I found my passions subsiding, and I grew as callous to my susceptibilites, as the tender greens become juiceless and dry after the autumn is over.
2. Seeing my husband grown old, and shorn of all his susceptivity and vivaciousness; and sitting quietly in his steadfast devotion with an unwavering mind, I thought my life to be useless to me.
3. And methought that early widowhood, and even premature death, or rather a lingering disease or lasting misery, are preferable to a female’s living without a loving husband.
4. It is the boon of life, and the greatest good fortune of a woman, to have a young and loving husband, who is of good and pleasant humour, and pliant in his manners.
5. A woman is given for lost, who has not a sweet and lovely spouse; as the understanding is lost which is not fraught with learning. In vain is prosperity when she favours the wicked, and in vain is a woman that is lost to shame. (Because modesty is the best quality of women).
6. She is the best of women, who is obedient to her husband; and that is the best fortune, which falls in the hands of the virtuous and good. That understanding is praised which is clear and capacious; and that goodness is good, which has a fellow feeling and equal regard for all mankind.
7. Neither disease nor calamity, nor dangers nor difficulties, can disturb the minds, or afflict the hearts of a loving pair, (bound together by mutual affection).
8. The prospect of the blossoming garden of Eden, and the flowery paths of paradise, appear as desert lands to women, that have no husbands, or such as wicked and unmannerly in their behaviour.
9. A woman may forsake all her worldly possessions, as of little value to her; but she can never forsake her husband, even for any fault on his part.
10. You see, O chief of sages, all these miseries to which I am subjected these very many years of my puberty.