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Lo, since the day I left you, O my masters, Life is not sweet, no aye my heart is light.
Yea, in the night the thought of you still slays me; Hidden are my traces from the wise men’s sight,
All for a wild deer’s love, whose looks have snared me And on whose brows the morning glitters bright
I am become, for severance from my loved one, Like a left hand, forsaken of the right.
Beauty on his cheek hath written, “Blest be Allah, He who created this enchanting wight!”
Him I beseech our loves who hath dissevered, Us of his grace once more to reunite.
When Er Reshid heard this, he waxed exceeding wroth and said, “May God not reunite you twain in gladness!” Then he summoned the headsman, and when he presented himself, he said to him, “Strike off the head of this accursed slave-girl.” So Mesrour took her by the hand and [led her away; but], when she came to the door, she turned and said to the Khalif, “O Commander of the Faithful, I conjure thee, by thy fathers and forefathers, give ear unto that I shall say!” Then she improvised and recited the following verses:
O Amir of justice, be kind to thy subjects; For justice, indeed, of thy nature’s a trait.
O thou my inclining to love him that blamest, Shall lovers be blamed for the errors of Fate?
Then spare me, by Him who vouchsafed thee the kingship; For a gift in this world is the regal estate.
Then Mesrour carried her to the other end of the
