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aught thou wouldst have done, for thy last hour is come.” “O good slave,” said I, “grant me a little respite, that I may give thee my last injunctions.” Then I raised my head and considered my case and how I had fallen from high estate into abjection; wherefore the tears streamed from my eyes and I wept passing sore. He looked at me with angry eyes and repeated the following verses:
Say unto her who wronged us, on whom our kisses tire, Her that hath chosen another for darling of desire,
Lo, we will spurn thee from us, before thou cast us off! That which is past between us suffices to our ire.
When I heard this, I wept and looked at him and repeated the following verses:
You doom my banishment from love and all unmoved remain; You rob my wounded lids of rest and sleep whilst I complain.
You make mine eyes familiar with watching and unrest; Yet can my heart forget you not, nor eyes from tears refrain.
You swore to me that you would keep, for aye, your plighted faith; But when my heart was yours, you broke the oath that you had ta’en.
Are you secure against the shifts of time and evil chance, That you’ve no mercy on my love nor aught of pity deign?
If I must die, I prithee, write, ’fore God, upon my tomb, “A slave of passion lieth here, who died of love in vain.”
It may be one shall pass that way, who knows the pangs of love, And looking on a lover’s grave, take pity on her pain.
Then I wept; and when he heard what I said and saw my tears, his anger redoubled, and he repeated the following verses:
I left the darling of my heart, not from satiety; But she had sinned a sin that called aloud for punishment.
She would have ta’en another in to share with me her love, But the religion of my heart to share will not consent.[1]
- ↑ There is a play upon words in this line, founded upon the double meaning of the word shirk, sharing (or partnership) and polytheism or the attributing partners or equals to God (as in the Trinity), the one unpardonable sin of the Muslim religious code.
