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My watering lips, that cull the rose of thy soft cheek, declare My basil,[1] lily mine, to be the myrtles of thy hair.
Sandhill[2] and down[3] betwixt there blooms a yellow willow-flower,[4] Pomegranate-blossoms[5] and for fruits pomegranates[6] that doth bear.
His eyelids’ sorcery from mine eyes hath banished sleep; since he From me departed, nought see I except a drowsy fair.[7]
He shot me with the shafts of looks launched from an eyebrow’s[8] bow; A chamberlain[9] betwixt his eyes hath driven me to despair.
My heart belike shall his infect with softness, even as me His body with disease infects, of its seductive air.
Yet, if with him forgotten be the troth-plight of our loves, I have a king who of his grace will not forget me e’er.
- ↑ Koranic synonym, victual (rihan). See Vol. II. p. 247, note.
- ↑ Apparently, the apple of the throat.
- ↑ Apparently, the belly.
- ↑ Apparently, the bosom.
- ↑ Cf. Fletcher’s well-known song in The Bloody Brother;
“Hide, O hide those hills of snow,
That thy frozen bosom bears,
On whose tops the pinks that grow
Are of those that April wears.” - ↑ i.e. the breasts themselves.
- ↑ i.e. your languishing beauties are alone present to my mind’s eye. A drowsy voluptuous air of languishment is considered by the Arabs an especial charm.
- ↑ Syn. chamberlain (hajib).
- ↑ Syn. eyebrow (hajib). The usual trifling play of words is of course intended.
