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him and His beard grew again. Then he sent for me and said to me, “O youth, verily we led the happiest of lives, safe from the vicissitudes of fortune, till thou camest to us, when troubles flocked upon us. O that we had never seen thee nor the ugly face of thee! For through our taking pity on thee, we are come to this state of bereavement. I have lost, on thine account, first, my daughter, who was worth a hundred men; secondly, I have suffered what befell me by the fire and the loss of my teeth, and my eunuch also is dead. I do not indeed blame thee for aught of this; for all was decreed of God to us and to thee; and praised be He that my daughter delivered thee, though at the cost of her own life! But now, O my son, depart from my city and let what has befallen us on thine account suffice. Depart in peace, and if I see thee again I will kill thee.” And he cried out at me. So I went forth from his presence, knowing not whither I should go, and hardly believing in my escape. And I recalled all that had befallen me from first to last and thanked God that it was my eye that I had lost and not my life. Before I left the town, I entered the bath and shaved my head and put on a hair-cloth garment. Then I fared forth at a venture, and every day I recalled all the misfortunes that had befallen me and wept and repeated the following verses:
By the Compassionate, I’m dazed and know not where I go. Griefs flock on me from every side, I know not whence they grow.
I will endure till patience’ self less patient is than I: I will have patience till it please the Lord to end my woe.
A vanquished man, without complaint, my doom I will endure, As the parched traveller in the waste endures the torrid glow.
I will endure till aloes’[1] self confess that I, indeed, Can ’gainst a bitt’rer thing abide than even it can show.
- ↑ A play upon words is here intended turning upon the double meaning (“aloes” and “patience”) of the Arabic word sebr.
