258
concerning the rest of the sweet-scented flowers and herbs, so I may hear thy singing and divert myself with witnessing thy skill.’ ‘Hearkening and obedience, O lady mine,’ answered Tuhfeh and taking the lute, improvised the following verses:
Midst colours, my colour excelleth in light And I would every eye of my charms might have sight.
My place is the place of the fillet and pearls And the fair are most featly with jasmine bedight,
How bright and how goodly my lustre appears! Yea, my wreaths are like girdles of silver so white.
Then she changed the measure and improvised the following:
I’m the crown of every sweet and fragrant weed; When the loved one calls, I keep the tryst agreed.
My favours I deny not all the year; Though cessation be desired, I nothing heed.
I’m the keeper of the promise and the troth, And my gathering is eath, without impede.
Then she changed the measure and the mode [and played] so that she amazed the wits of those who were present, and Queen Es Shuhba was moved to mirth and said, ‘Well done, O queen of delight!’ Then she returned to the first mode and improvised the following verses on the water-lily:
I fear to be seen in the air, Without my consent, unaware;
So I stretch out my root neath the flood And my branches turn back to it there.
