I passed by a ruined tomb, in the midst of a garden-way, Upon whose letterless stone seven blood-red anemones lay. "Who sleeps in this unmarked grave?" I said; and the earth, "Bend low; For a lover lies here and waits for the Resurrection Day." "God help thee, O victim of love," I cried, "and bring thee to dwell In the highest of all the heavens of Paradise, I pray! How wretched are lovers all, even in the sepulchre, When their very graves are covered with ruin and decay! Lo, if I might, I would plant thee a garden round about And with my streaming tears the thirst of its flowers allay!" Then she returned to the garden, weeping, and I with her, and she said to me, "By Allah, thou shalt never leave me!" "I hear and obey," answered I. Then I devoted myself wholly to her and paid her frequent visits, and she was good and generous to me. As often as I passed the night with her, she would make much of me and ask me of the two words my cousin told my mother, and I would repeat them to her. I abode thus a whole year, till, what with eating and drinking and dalliance and wearing change of rich raiment, I waxed stout and fat, so that I lost all thought of sorrow and anxiety and forgot my cousin Azizeh. At the end of this time, I went one day to the bath, where I refreshed myself and put on a rich suit of clothes, scented with various perfumes; then, coming out I drank a cup of wine and smelt the fragrance of my new clothes, whereupon my breast dilated, for I knew not the perfidy of fortune nor the calamities of events. When the hour of evening-prayer came, I thought to repair to my mistress; but being heated with wine, I knew not where I went, so that, on the way, my drunkenness turned me into a by-street called En Nekib, where, as I was going along, I met an old woman with a lighted flambeau in one hand and a folded letter in the other; and she was weeping and repeating the following verses: O welcome, bearer of glad news, thrice welcome to my sight; How sweet and solaceful to me thy tidings of delight! Thou that the loved one's greeting bringst unto my longing soul, God's peace, what while the zephyr blows, dwell with thee day and night!