The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 03 (of 10)
General
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 03 (of 10)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the old
woman came to Kanmakan and said, "Of a truth the daughter of thine
uncle saluteth thee and she will visit thee this night about midnight;"
he rejoiced and sat down to await the fulfilment of his cousin's
promise. But before the hour of night she came to him, wrapped in a
veil of black silk, and she went in to him and aroused him from sleep,
saying, "How canst thou pretend to love me, when thou art sleeping
heart-free and in complete content?" So he awoke and said, "By Allah, O
desire of my heart, I slept not but in the hope that thine image might
visit my dreams!" Then she chid him with soft words and began
versifying in these couplets,
"Hadst thou been leaf in love's loyalty, *
Ne'er haddest suffered sleep to seal those eyne:
O thou who claimest lover-loyalty, *
Treading the lover's path of pain and pine!
By Allah, O my cousin, never yet *
Did eyes of lover sleep such sleep indign."
Now when he heard his cousin's words, he was abashed before her and
rose and excused himself. Then they embraced and complained to each
other of the anguish of separation; and they ceased not thus till dawn
broke and day dispersed itself over the horizon; when she rose
preparing to depart. Upon this Kanmakan wept and sighed and began
improvising these couplets,
"O thou who deignest come at sorest sync, *
Whose lips those teeth like necklaced pearls enshrine'
I kissed him[FN#94] thousand times and clips his waist, *
And spent the night with cheek to cheek close li'en
Till to depart us twain came dawning day, *
Like sword edge drawn from sheath in radiant line."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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