211
Then wept Hassan and chanted the following couplet:
O heart, if the belovéd should play thee false in aught, Renounce her not, I rede thee, nor be thy love forgot.
Be patient; thou shalt bury thine enemies; God wot, He who makes use of patience, it disappoints him not.
And this also:
If all thy days thou wouldst be safe from trouble and dismay, Despair thou never neither be discouraged nor [too] gay.
Be patient and rejoice thou not nor mourn; but, if by day Thou art afflicted, “Have we not expanded . . . . . . ?” look thou say.[1]
Thereupon the old woman bowed her head awhile, then, raising it, said, ‘Glory be to God, the Mighty of Estate! Indeed I am afflicted with thee, O Hassan! Would I had never known thee! This woman, whom thou describest to me as thy very wife, I know by thy description to be none other than the eldest daughter of the Supreme King, she who ruleth over all the Wac Islands.[2] So open thine eyes and consider thine affair; and if thou be asleep, awake; for, if this woman be indeed thy wife, it is impossible for thee ever to win to her, and though thou wonnest to her, yet couldst thou not avail to her possession, since the distance between thee and her is as that between earth and heaven. Wherefore, O my son, return presently and cast not thyself into destruction and me with thee; for meseemeth thou hast no lot in her; so return whence thou camest, lest our lives be lost.’ And she feared for herself and for him.
- ↑ i.e. repeat the chapter of the Koran commencing with these words, “Have we not expanded unto thee thy breast and eased thee of thy burden which galled thy back? . . . . . Verily, with difficulty is ease!”—Koran xciv. 1, etc.
- ↑ The old woman seems to have made the same mistake as Hassan’s adopted sister (see supra, p. 154) in supposing his wife to have been the eldest daughter of the Supreme King, when, in fact, she was the youngest daughter, as appears by the sequel.
