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"A WONDERFUL TALE."
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- They departed, and with them departed my hope;
- Than distance no greater affliction can fall on one.
- And the union is broken, and the heart is consumed,
- And tears overflow, for the caravan has gone.
- So was my heart when their camels departed,
- As wasted by sickness or drunk with wine.
- Though the camels had knelt, yet at dawn they arose,
- And by hers my beloved one was borne away.
- But her glance to a chink in her prison[1] she turned,
- Looking toward me with tears from her eye streaming down.
- O cameleer! go slowly, that I may bid them farewell.
- O cameleer! in thy departure is my death.
- By thy truth! I shall never forget my intercourse with them,
- Would I had known their long agreement to their deed!
Abu-ʾl-ʾAbbâs, el-Mubárrad, continues: "And when I had ended my poem, he asked me, 'What was their deed?' I answered, Their death.'
"Then he cried with a loud cry, and fell down swooning. And I shook him, but found that he had really died. May God have mercy upon him!"
- ↑ The litter in which an Arabian woman of any rank is carried on camel-back when travelling.
Watson and Hazell, Printers, London and Aylesbury.
