groaning again began, and the man recited these lines, saying:
The fleeting vision of Riyâ has grieved thee,
And the night is dark as the blackest tresses.
The foundation of love was laid by thine eye;
But the brilliant vision has fled from thy gaze.
I called to the Night—and the darkness was
Like an ocean with rolling billows beating;
Whilst the moon traversed the heavens
As a journeying Monarch with the stars his armies.—
"O Night! thou hast been weary to the lover,
Only with the Dawn is his aid and succour."
But Night answered me, "Die thy natural death! and know
That love is the self-contempt of the lover."
And at the beginning of his verses I rose in order to find the voice, and he had not ended them before I was with him. And I found him a youth with the down yet on his face, and with tears flowing in torrents over his cheeks. So I said to him, "Good morrow, young man." He replied, "And to thee—who art thou?" I answered, "ʾAbd-Allâh-ibn-Mʾaʾmr, el-Kîsy."
He asked, "Seekest thou aught?"
I replied, "I was sitting in the Ráwdat, and nothing troubled me this night excepting thy voice. Now my life is at thy service; what is it thou requirest?"
