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I wept, but those who spied to part us had no ruth On me nor on the fires that in my vitals flare.
Woe’s me for one who burns for love and longing pain! Alas for the regrets my heart that rend and tear!
To whom shall I complain of what is in my soul, Now thou art gone and I my pillow must forswear?
The flames of long desire wax on me day by day And far away are pitched the tent-poles of my fair.
O breeze of heaven, from me a charge I prithee take And do not thou betray the troth of my despair;
Whenas thou passest by the dwellings of my love, Greet him for me with peace, a greeting debonair,
And scatter musk on him and ambergris, so long As time endures; for this is all my wish and care.
When the damsel had made an end of her song, El Abbas swooned away and they sprinkled on him rose-water, mingled with musk, till he came to himself, when he called another damsel (now there was on her of linen and clothes and ornaments that which beggareth description, and she was endowed with brightness and loveliness and symmetry and perfection, such as shamed the crescent moon, and she was a Turkish girl from the land of the Greeks and her name was Hafizeh) and said to her, “O Hafizeh, close thine eyes and tune thy lute and sing to us upon the days of separation.” She answered him with “Hearkening and obedience” and taking the lute, tuned its strings and cried out from her head,[1] in a plaintive voice, and sang the following verses:
- ↑ i.e. in falsetto?
