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spirits.’ So she took the lute and changing the mode, played a third air; then she returned to the first and sang the following verses:
The billows of thy love o’erwhelm me passing sore; I sink and all in vain for succour I implore.
Ye’ve drowned me in the sea of love for you; my heart Denies to be consoled for those whom I adore.
Think not that I forget our trothplight after you. Nay; God to me decreed remembrance heretofore.[1]
Love to its victim clings without relent, and he Of torments and unease complaineth evermore.
The kings and all those who were present rejoiced in this with an exceeding delight and the accursed Iblis came up to Tuhfeh and kissing her hand, said to her, ‘There abideth but little of the night; so do thou tarry with us till the morrow, when we will apply ourselves to the wedding[2] and the circumcision.’ Then all the Jinn went away, whereupon Tuhfeh rose to her feet and Iblis said, ‘Go ye up with Tuhfeh to the garden for the rest of the night.’ So Kemeriyeh took her and carried her
- ↑ i.e. from time immemorial, before the creation of the world. The most minute details of every man’s life in the world are believed by the Mohammedans to have been fore-ordained by God from all eternity. This belief is summed up in the Koranic saying, “Verily, the commandment of God is a prevenient decree.”
- ↑ No mention is afterward made of any wedding, and the word is, therefore, probably used here in its implied sense of “festival,” “merry-making.” I am not, however acquainted with any instance of this use of the word urs.
