The Shaving of Shagpat; an Arabian entertainment — Volume 1Meredith, George
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The Shaving of Shagpat; an Arabian entertainment — Volume 1
Meredith, George
Arab countries -- Fiction; Fantasy fiction, English
Snows of the mountain-peaks were mirror'd there
Beneath her feet, not whiter than they were;
Not rosier in the white, that falling flush
Broad on the wave, than in her cheek the blush.
And again:
She draws the heavens down to her,
So rare she is, so fair she is;
They flutter with a crown to her,
And lighten only where she is.
And he exclaims, in verse that applieth to her:
Exquisite slenderness!
Sleek little antelope!
Serpent of sweetness!
Eagle that soaringly
Wins me adoringly!
Teach me thy fleetness,
Vision of loveliness;
Turn to my tenderness!
Now, when the sun was lost to earth, and all was darkness, Bhanavar fixed
her eyes upon an opening arch of foliage in the glade through which the
youth her lover should come to her, and clasped both hands across her
bosom, so shaken was she with eager longing and expectation. In her
hunger for his approach, she would at whiles pluck up the herbage about
her by the roots, and toss handfuls this way and that, chiding the
peaceful song of the nightbird in the leaves above her head; and she was
sinking with fretfulness, when lo! from the opening arch of the glade a
sudden light, and Bhanavar knew it for the Jewel in the fingers of her
betrothed, by the strength of its effulgence. Then she called to him
joyfully a cry of welcome, and quickened his coming with her calls, and
the youth alighted from his mare and left it to pasture, and advanced to
her, holding aloft the Jewel. And the Jewel was of great size and
purity, round, and all-luminous, throwing rays and beams everywhere about
it, a miracle to behold,--the light in it shining, and as the very life
of the blood, a sweet crimson, a ruby, a softer rose, an amethyst of
tender hues: it was a full globe of splendours, showing like a very
kingdom of the Blest; and blessed was the eye beholding it! So when he
was within reach of her arm, the damsel sprang to him and caught from his
hand the Jewel, and held it before her eyes, and danced with it, and
pressed it on her bosom, and was as a creature giddy with great joy in
possessing it. And she put the Jewel in her bosom, and looked on the
youth to thank him for the Jewel with all her beauty; for the passion of
a mighty pride in him who had won for her the Jewel exalted Bhanavar, and
she said sweetly, 'Now hast thou proved to me thy love of me, and I am
thine, O my betrothed,--wholly thine. Kiss me, then, and cease not
kissing me, for bliss is in me.'
But the youth eyed her sorrowfully, even as one that hath great yearning,
and no power to move or speak.
So she said again, in the low melody of deep love-tones, 'Kiss me, O my
lover! for I desire thy kiss.'
Still he spake not, and was as a pillar of stone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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