Chide not the mourner for bemourning woe; ○ Enough is yearning every Ill to show:
He weeps for stress of sorrow and of pain, ○ And these to thee best evidence his lowe:
Happy![1] of whom Love sickness swore that ne'er ○ Should cease his eye lids loving tears to flow:
He mourns the loss of fairest, fullest Moon, ○ Shining o'er all his peers in glorious glow:
But death made drink a brimming cup, what day ○ He fared from natal country fain to go:
His home left he and went from us to grief; ○ Nor to his brethren could he say adieu:
Yea, his loss wounded me with parting pangs, ○ And separation cost me many a throe:
He fared farewelling, as he fared, our eyes; ○ Whenas his Lord vouch-safed him Paradise.
And when King Shahriman had ended his verses, he returned with the troops to his capital,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Two Hundred and Twelfth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when King Shahriman had ended his verses, he returned with the troops to his capital, giving up his son for lost, and deeming that wild beasts or banditti had set upon him and torn him to pieces; and made proclamation that all in the Khalidan Islands should don black in mourning for him. Moreover, he built, in his memory, a pavilion, naming it House of Lamentations; and on Mondays and Thursdays he devoted himself to the business of the state and ordering the affairs of his levies and lieges; and the rest of the week he was wont to spend in the House of Lamentations, mourning for his son and bewailing him with elegiac verses, [2] of which the following are some:—
My day of bliss is that when thou appearest; ○ My day of bale[3] is that whereon thou farest:
Though through the night I quake in dread of death; ○ Union wi' thee is of all bliss the dearest.
