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In my soul the fire of yearning and affliction rageth aye; Lo, I burn with love and longing; nought in answer can I say.
To Baghdad upon a matter of all moment do I fare, For the love of one whose beauties have my reason led astray.
Under me’s a slender camel, a devourer of the waste; Those who pass a cloudlet deem it, as it flitteth o’er the way.
So, O Aamir, haste thy going, e’en as I do, so may I Heal my sickness and the draining of the cup of love essay;
For the longing that abideth in my heart is hard to bear. Fare with me, then, to my loved one. Answer nothing, but obey.
When Aamir heard his lord’s verses, he knew that he was a slave of love [and that she of whom he was enamoured abode] in Baghdad. Then they fared on night and day, traversing plains and stony wastes, till they came in sight of Baghdad and lighted down in its suburbs[1] and lay the night there. When they arose in the morning, they removed to the bank of the Tigris and there they encamped and sojourned three days.
As they abode thus on the fourth day, behold, a company of folk giving their beasts the rein and crying aloud and saying, “Quick! Quick! Haste to our rescue, O King!” Therewithal the king’s chamberlains and officers accosted them and said to them, “What is behind you and what hath befallen you?” Quoth they, “Bring us before the king.” [So they carried them to Ins ben Cais;] and when they saw him, they said to him, “O king, except thou succour us, we are
- ↑ Lit. in its earth.
