"None other charms but thine shall greet mine eyes, * Nor other image
can my heart surprise:
Thy love, my lady, captives all my thoughts * And on that love I'll die
and I'll arise.
So I lay with her that night; none fairer I ever knew; and, when it was
morning, the damsels carried me to the Hammam bath and bathed me and
robed me in fairest apparel. Then they served up food, and we ate and
drank and the cup went round till nightfall when I chose from among
them one fair of form and face, soft-sided and a model of grace, such
an one as the poet described when he said.—
On her fair bosom caskets twain I scanned, * Sealed fast with musk
seals lovers to withstand
With arrowy glances stand on guard her eyes, * Whose shafts would shoot
who dares put forth a hand.
With her I spent a most goodly night; and, to be brief, O my mistress,
I remained with them in all solace and delight of life, eating and
drinking, conversing and carousing and every night lying with one or
other of them. But at the head of the new year they came to me in tears
and bade me farewell, weeping and crying out and clinging about me:
whereat I wondered and said, "What may be the matter? verily you break
my heart!" They exclaimed, "Would Heaven we had never known thee; for,
though we have companied with many, yet never saw we a pleasanter than
thou or a more courteous." And they wept again. "But tell me more
clearly," asked I, "what causeth this weeping which maketh my
gall-bladder[FN#291] like to burst;" and they answered, "O our lord and
master, it is severance which maketh us weep; and thou, and thou only,
art the cause of our tears. If thou hearken to us we need never be
parted and if thou hearken not we part for ever; but our hearts tell us
that thou wilt not listen to our words and this is the cause of our
tears and cries." "Tell me how the case standeth?" "Know, O our lord,
that we are the daughters of Kings who have met here and have lived
together for years; and once in every year we are perforce absent for
forty days; and afterwards we return and abide here for the rest of the
twelve month eating and drinking and taking our pleasure and enjoying
delights: we are about to depart according to our custom; and we fear
lest after we be gone thou contraire our charge and disobey our
injunctions. Here now we commit to thee the keys of the palace which
containeth forty chambers and thou mayest open of these thirty and
nine, but beware (and we conjure thee by Allah and by the lives of us!)
lest thou open the fortieth door, for therein is that which shall
separate us for ever."[FN#292] Quoth I, "Assuredly I will not open it,
if it contain the cause of severance from you." Then one among them
came up to me and falling on my neck wept and recited these verses.—
"If Time unite us after absent while, * The world harsh frowning on our
lot shall smile
And if thy semblance deign adorn mine eyes,[FN#293] * I'll pardon Time
past wrongs and by gone guile."