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her ‘O Tuhfeh sing upon these roses.’ ‘Hearkening and obedience,’ answered she and sang the following verses:
O’er all the fragrant flowers that be I have the pref’rence aye, For that I come but once a year, and but a little stay.
And high is my repute, for that I wounded aforetime My lord,[1] whom God made best of all the treaders of the clay.
So Es Shisban drank off the cup in his turn and said, ‘Well done, O desire of hearts!’ And he bestowed on her that which was upon him, to wit, a dress of cloth-of-pearl, fringed with great pearls and rubies and broidered with precious stones, and a tray wherein were fifty thousand dinars. Then Meimoun the Sworder took the cup and fell to gazing intently upon Tuhfeh. Now there was in his hand a pomegranate-flower and he said to her, ‘Sing upon this pomegranate-flower, O queen of men and Jinn; for indeed thou hast dominion over all hearts.’ Quoth she, ‘Hearkening and obedience;’ and she improvised and sang the following verses:
The zephyr’s sweetness on the coppice blew, And as with falling fire ’twas clad anew;
And to the birds’ descant in the foredawns, From out the boughs it flowered forth and grew,
Till in a robe of sandal green ’twas clad And veil that blended rose and flame[2] in hue.
