Quoth the hero, 'Alas, for restless my resting-place shall be, One couch did so sorely wound me, and the other hath brought to me Sore torment of love and longing! Orgelusé must favour show Unto me her true knight and servant, or small joy shall my life-days know!' As unresting he turned, and he stretched him, the bands from his wounds were torn, 75 So restless he lay and wakeful awaited the coming morn. And at last the day shone on him, and many a battlefield And sword-strife more rest had brought him than the rest which his couch might yield.
Would one liken his woe unto Gawain's, and be e'en such a lover true, Of his love-wounds let him be healèd, and then smitten by darts anew, 80 And methinks he shall find that the sorrow and torment shall vex him more Than all the sum of the sorrow he hath borne for love's sake before!
Nor love's torments alone vexed Gawain--Ever clearer it grew, the light, Till dark seemed the lofty tapers that erstwhile had shone so bright. Then up sprang from his couch the hero, and as blood, and as iron, red 85 With wounds, and with rust, was his linen, yet beside him he saw outspread Hosen and shirt of woollen, and the change pleased our hero well, And robes lined with fur of the marten, and a garment that o'er them fell, (In Arras its stuff was woven, and from Arras 'twas hither sent,) And boots had they lain beside it, none too narrow for his content. 90
In these garments anew he clothed him, and forth from the chamber went Gawain, and hither and thither his steps thro' the palace bent, Till he found the hall of his venture, no riches he e'er had known To liken unto the glories within this fair castle shown. And there at one side of the palace a narrow dome he found, 95 And it rose high above the building, and a staircase within it wound, And above stood a shining pillar; nor of wood was it shapen fair, But so large and so strong that the coffin of Kamilla it well might bear. And Klingsor, the wise, he brought it from the kingdom of Feirefis, And his cunning and skill had fashioned both the hall and the stair I wis! 100
No tent might so round be fashioned; did the Master Geometras will To raise such a work he had failèd, for unknown to his hand the skill. 'Twas magic alone that wrought it--The venture it bids us know Of diamond, amethyst, topaz, carbuncle with red-fire glow, Of chrysolite, emerald, ruby, and sardius, the windows tall, 105 That each one like to the other encircled this wondrous hall. And rich as the window columns, and carven, the roof o'erhead, And herein was a greater marvel than all marvels ye yet have read;