Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 3.djvu/83

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"What's life to me, unless I see the pearly sheen * Of teeth I love, and sight that glorious mien? Pray for her Bishops who in convents reign, * Vying to bow before that heavenly queen. And Death is lighter than the loved one's wrath, * Whose phantom haunts me seen in every scene: O joy of cup companions, when they meet, * And loved and lover o'er each other lean! E'en more in time of spring, the lord of flowers, * When fragrant is the world with bloom and green: Drainer of vine-juice! up wi' thee, for now * Earth is a Heaven where sweet waters flow. [1]"

When Kanmakan heard these distichs his sorrows surged up; his tears ran down his cheeks like freshets and flames of fire darted into his heart. So he rose to see who it was that spake these words, but saw none for the thickness of the gloom; whereupon passion increased on him and he was frightened and restlessness possessed him. He descended from his place to the sole of the valley and walked along the banks of the stream, till he heard the same voice sighing heavy sighs and reciting these couplets,

"Tho' 'tis thy wont to hide thy love perforce, * Yet weep on day of parting and divorce! Twixt me and my dear love were plighted vows; * Pledge of reunion, fonder intercourse: With joy inspires my heart and deals it rest * Zephyr, whose coolness doth desire enforce. O Sa'adá, [2] thinks of me that anklet wearer? * Or parting broke she troth without remorse? And say! shall nights foregather us, and we * Of suffered hardships tell in soft discourse? Quoth she, 'Thou'rt daft for us and fey'; quoth I, * ' 'Sain thee! how many a friend hast turned to corse!' If taste mine eyes sweet sleep while she's away, * Allah with loss of her these eyne accurse. O wounds in vitals mine! for cure they lack * Union and dewy lips' sweet theriack." [3]

  1. Koran, chaps. ii. 23. The idea is repeated in some forty Koranic passages.
  2. A woman's name, often occurring. The "daughters of Sa'ada" are zebras, so called because "they resemble women in beauty and graceful agility."
  3. Arab. "Tiryák" from Gr. 10k4"iÎ< nVk:"i@< a drug against venomous bites. It was compounded mainly of treacle, and that of Baghdad and Irák was long held sovereign. The European equivalent, "Venice treacle," (Theriaca Andromachi) is an electuary containing many elements. Badawin eat for counter-poison three heads of garlic in clarified butter for forty days. (Pilgrimage iii 77 )