Unknown

“ Lives there a true and tender friend, who doth compassionate My sickness and my long unrest, that unto him I may
Make moan of all that I endure for dole and drearihead And of my sleepless eyes, oppressed of wakefulness alway?
My night in torments is prolonged; I burn, without reprieve, In flames of heart-consuming care that rage in me for aye.
The bug and flea do drink my blood, even as one drinks of wine, Poured by the hand of damask-lipped and slender-waisted may.
The body of me, amongst the lice, is as an orphan’s good, That in an unjust Cadi’s hands doth dwindle and decay. ”

“ I write with a heart devoted to thee and the thought of thee And an eyelid, wounded for weeping tears of the blood of me.
And a body that love and affliction and passion and long desire Have clad with the garment of leanness and wasted utterly.
I plain me to thee of passion, for sore hath it baffled me Nor is there a corner left me where patience yet may be.
Wherefore, have mercy, I prithee, show favour unto me, For my heart, my heart is breaking for love and agony.
The cure of hearts is union with the beloved and whom his love maltreateth, God is his physician. ”

“ Lo, the Compassionate hath made no fairer thing to see Than when one couch in its embrace enfoldeth lovers twain,
Each to the other’s bosom clasped, clad in their own delight, Whilst hand with hand and arm with arm about their necks enchain.
Lo, when two hearts are straitly knit in passion and desire, But on cold iron smite the folk that chide at them in vain.
Thou that for loving censurest the votaries of love, Canst thou assain a mind diseased or heal a cankered brain?
If in thy time thou find but one to love thee and be true, I rede thee cast the world away and with that one remain. ”

“ When he heard this, he looked in at the door and saw a garden of the goodliest of gardens, and at its farther end a curtain of red brocade, embroidered with pearls and jewels, behind which sat four damsels, and amongst them a young lady over four and under five feet in height, as she were the round of the moon and the shining full moon. She had great liquid black eyes and joined eyebrows, a mouth as it were Solomon’s seal and lips and teeth like pearls and coral; and indeed she ravished all wits with her beauty and grace and symmetry. ”

“ So he said to the gardener, ‘O elder, is this garden thine own or dost thou hire it?’ ‘O my lord,’ answered the old man, ‘I am neither owner nor tenant of the garden, only its keeper.’ ‘And what is thy wage?’ asked the Vizier. ‘A dinar a month,’ replied the old man, and the Vizier said, ‘Verily, they wrong thee, especially if thou hast a family.’ ‘By Allah, O my lord,’ answered the gardener, ‘I have eight children.’ ‘There is no power and no virtue save in God the Most High, the Supreme!’ exclaimed the Vizier. ‘Thou makest my heart bleed for thee, my poor fellow! ”

“ God on thee, where is the boy beside the girl and who shall liken the kid to the wild cow? The girl is soft of speech, fair of shape, like a stalk of sweet basil, with teeth like camomile-petals and hair like halters. Her cheeks are like blood-red anemones and her face like an apple; she hath lips like wine and breasts like double pomegranates and a shape flexile as a willow-wand. Her body is rounded and well-formed: she hath a nose like the point of a shining sword and a forehead brilliant with whiteness and joined eyebrows and black and melting eyes. ”

“ Fain would I hide my love for you: longing discovers it, For burnt and seared with passion’s fires are all my heart and brain.
Have ruth on me, compassionate my case, for still to keep Our plighted faith in secrecy and trust I have been fain.
Will fortune reunite me aye with you, my heart’s desire, You unto whom my soul cleaves still, bound fast with many a chain?
My entrails ulcerated are with separation’s pangs: Would God with tidings from your camp to favour us you’d deign! ”

“ The foemen everywhere do dread my sabre and my spear.
I’m Jemrcan, whose whole delight is in the press of war, And all the champions of the world my lance-thrust know and fear.
Gherib my lord and sultan is, the high-priest of my faith, That is the lion of the fight, when hosts to strife draw near!
Devout and full of pious dread, a doughty chief is he; Midmost the tented field he slays his enemies like deer. ”

“ Thy lover, the tears of whose eyes run down on his body like rain.
One hand to his heart ever pressed, whilst the other the Merciful One Imploreth, so He of His grace may grant him his hope to attain.
O thou, that beholdest a youth for passion that’s perished, thine eye And thy hand are the cause of his death and yet might restore him again.
When the damsel heard this, she sprang up and throwing herself at my feet, kissed them and said, “It is thine to excuse, O my lord! By Allah, I knew not thy quality nor heard I ever the like of this fashion!” ”

“ Sure proverbs on us East and West shall be made And the folk our report for a wonder shall know.
Leave loving my like, or for sure thou’lt have blame.—Why cleav’st thou to me of all women? I trow,
One well-born shouldst thou love.—Thou’lt a byword become And find not a pitying friend high or low
I’m a Pharisee’s child and the folk fear my wrath: Would the term of my life were accomplished, heigho!
And Mesrour answered her with these verses.
Leave me to my affliction; to love thee I’m content; And blame me not, for censure my passion doth augment. ”

“ If that the hands of Time have made their plaything of our life, Till for its long protracted kiss ill-hap upon us spring,
Dost thou not see the hurricane, what time the wild winds blow, Smite down the stately trees alone and spare each lesser thing?
Lo! in the skies are many stars, no one can tell their tale, But to the sun and moon alone eclipse brings darkening.
The earth bears many a pleasant herb and many a plant and tree: But none is stoned save only those to which the fair fruit cling. ”

“ So I rose and shaking all these things off me, went out in a rage, and going home, found my cousin sighing and repeating the following verses:
Wasted body and heart a-bleeding for despair And tears that down my cheeks stream on and on for e’er,
And a belovéd one persistent in disdain; Yet all a fair one does must needs be right and fair.
O cousin mine, thou’st filled my heart with longing pain And wounded are mine eyes with tears that never spare. ”

“ The shadows darken and passion stirs up my sickness amain And longing rouses within me the old desireful pain.
The anguish of parting hath taken its sojourn in my breast And love and longing and sorrow have maddened heart and brain.
Passion hath made me restless and yearning consumes my soul And tears discover my secret, that else concealed had lain.
I know of no way to ease me of sickness and care and woe; Nor can my weak endeavour reknit Love’s severed skein.
My heart is a raging furnace, because of the heat whereof My entrails are racked with anguish, that nothing can assain. ”

“ How is’t I have no pitying friend to help me in my need? Will no one answer my complaint or heed the tears I shed?
My time of life is past away and death draws nigh to me: Will no one earn the grace of God by standing me in stead?
Will none take pity on my state and succour my despair With but a cup of water cold, to ease my torments dread?
The people fell to weeping for him, and the headsman rose and brought him a draught of water; but the Vizier smote the gugglet with his hand and broke it: then he cried out at the executioner and bade him strike off Noureddin’s head. ”

“ Surely, O friend, thou wilt with my desire comply; For all my heart’s on fire with love and agony.
When the fisherman heard this, he wept and sighed and lamented; then, recalling what had betided himself in the days of his youth, when love had the mastery over him and transport and love-longing and distraction were sore upon him and the fires of passion consumed him, replied with these verses:
Indeed, the lover’s excuse is manifest, Wasting of body and streaming tears, unrest,
Eyes, in the darkness that waken still, and heart, As ’twere a fire-box, bespeak him love-oppress. ”

“ A life made fair with all delight of days and solacement Mesrour doth live, what while my life is severed and forspent.
Fortune hath played the knave with me in her whom I adore And all my heart’s on flames of fire, that rage without relent.
Once with the fair a time was bright for thee; ’tis past and gone; Yet art thou ever love-distraught that lovely one anent. ”

“ Have pity on a slave of love, that burns for longing pain.
How long, I wonder, shall the hands of passion sport with me And love and dole and sleeplessness consume me, heart and brain?
Whiles do I plain me of a sea within my heart and whiles Of flaming; surely, this is strange, O thou my wish and bane!
Give o’er thy railing, censor mine, and set thyself to flee From love that maketh eyes for aye with burning tears to rain. ”

“ We abode thus a day and a night, the wind and waves helping us on, till, on the forenoon of the second day, the breeze freshened and the waves rose and cast us upon an island, well-nigh dead for cold and weariness and fear and hunger and thirst and lack of sleep. ”

“ As for Mesrour, sleep was not sweet to him nor was peace or patience left unto him, and he ceased not to be thus till, one night, his eyes closed for weariness and he dreamt that he saw Zein el Mewasif come to him in the garden and embrace him; but presently he awoke and found her not: whereupon he fell into a passion of grief. His reason fled and his eyes ran over with tears; love-longing to the utterest possessed his heart and he recited these verses:
Peace be on her, whose image came to visit me by night And passion straight in me renewed and longings did excite! ”

“ Indeed it seemed as it were she to whom the poet alludes in the following verses:
Her hair is night, her forehead day, her cheeks a blossomed rose And wine the honeyed dews wherewith her mouth for ever flows.
Heaven in her favours is and hell in her disdain; her teeth Are very pearls and in her face the moon at full doth glow.
And how excellent is another’s saying:
She shineth forth, a moon, and bends, a willow-wand, And breathes out ambergris and gazes, a gazelle. ”

“ Ho, son of Omar ben Ennuman, thou that stormest the citadels and layest waste the lands, up and out to joust and battle with him who halves the field with thee! Thou art prince of thy people and I am prince of mine; and whoso hath the upper hand, the other’s men shall come under his sway.’ Hardly had he made an end of speaking, when out came Sherkan, with a heart full of wrath, and spurring his horse into the midst of the field, drove like an angry lion at the Frank, who awaited him with calm and steadfastness and met him as a champion should. ”

“ For know that thy soul is about to leave the world and cease and depart from it; so shalt thou come to destruction and evil is the abiding-place to which thou goest!’ ‘O Aboulhussein,’ rejoined the wolf, ‘hasten to return to friendliness and persist not in this rancour. Know that he, who saves a soul from perdition, is as if he had restored it to life, and he, who saves a soul alive, is as if he had saved all mankind. ”

“ When night darkens on the dwellings, fires are lighted in our heart And our entrails burn within us, for desire and love’s excess.
Yea, for love and longing, slumber is a stranger to our couch And the burning pangs of fever do our body sore distress.
’Twas a law of passion ever, love and longing to conceal; Lift not thou the curtain from us nor our secret aye transgress. ”

“ She stole one glance at him that cost her a thousand sighs: her heart fluttered and her entrails yearned and she exclaimed, ‘Speak to me, O my lord! O my friend, my beloved, answer me and tell me thy name, for indeed thou hast ravished my wit!’ Still he abode drowned in sleep and answered her not a word, and she sighed and said, ‘Alas! Alas! why art thou so self-satisfied?’ Then she shook him and turning his hand over, saw her ring on his little finger, whereat she cried out and said, with a sigh of passion, ‘Alack! Alack! By Allah, thou art my beloved and lovest me! ”

“ Wherefore, O thou my heart, I’ll tear thee from my breast, For that thou art of those that envy me the swain.
Whenas I say, ‘O heart, be comforted,’ ’tis vain; To turn to any else than him it will not deign.
Noureddin wondered at the beauty of her song and the sweetness of her voice and the eloquence of her speech and his wit fled for stress of love and longing and distraction, so that he could not refrain from her a moment, but bent to her and strained her to his bosom; and she in like manner abandoned herself to his caresses and kissed him between the eyes. ”

“ At this I marvelled greatly and entering the citadel, trembling and dazed with wonder and affright, found it long and wide, as it were a city [1] for bigness; and therein were lofty storied pavilions, builded of gold and silver and inlaid with many-coloured jewels and jacinths and chrysolites and pearls. The leaves of their doors were even as those of the citadel for beauty and their floors strewn with great pearls and balls, as they were hazel-nuts, of musk and ambergris and saffron. When I came within the city and saw no human being therein, I had well-nigh swooned and died for fear. ”