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Let destiny with slackened rein its course appointed fare And lie thou down to sleep by night, with heart devoid of care;
’twixt the closing of an eye and th’ opening thereof, God hath it in His power to change a case from foul to fair.
So take heart and brace up thy resolution, for one who is to live ten years dieth not when he is but nine. Weeping and grief and mourning engender sickness and disease; wherefore do thou abide with us till thou be rested, and I will cast about how thou mayst win to thy wife and children, so it please God the Most High.’ And he wept sore and recited these verses:
An if of its disease my body be made whole, I’m still unhealed of that which harbours in my soul.
Except a lover be united with his love, No cure for love’s disease there is nor lovers’ dole.
Then he sat down beside her and she proceeded to talk with him and comfort him and question him of the manner of his wife’s departure. So he told her and she said, ‘By Allah, O my brother, I had it in mind to bid thee burn the feather-dress, but Satan made me forget it.’ She ceased not to talk with him and caress him and company with him other ten days, whilst sleep visited him not and he delighted not in food; and when the case was long upon him and unrest waxed in him, he recited the following verses:
A loved one owns my heart, with whom I companied of yore: There is no creature save herself I wish or weary for.
All that the Arabs boast of charms in her united are; She’s a gazelle, but on my heart she feedeth evermore.
Because my patience and resource do fail for love of her, I weep, though weeping profits not to salve my secret sore.
A fair one, seven [years of age] she hath and seven thereto, As she a moon of five nights were and five thereto and four.[1]
- ↑ A roundabout way, much in favour with Arab poets, of stating a girl’s age, fourteen, and at the same time introducing the never-failing comparison to the full moon. See antè, Vol. IV. p. 327.
