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suits of cloth of gold, embroidered with jewels, together with a treasury[1] of money and ten riding horses and as many she-camels. When the day of departure arrived, the King accompanied them to the farthest limits of his islands, where, going in to his daughter Budour in the litter, he kissed her and strained her to his bosom, weeping and repeating the following verses:
O thou that seekest parting, stay thy feet, For sure embraces are a lover’s right.
Softly, for fortune’s nature is deceit And parting is the end of love-delight.
Then, leaving her, he kissed her husband and commended his daughter to his care; after which he bade him farewell and giving the signal for departure, returned to his capital with his troops. The prince and princess and their suite fared on without stopping a whole month, at the end of which time they came to a spacious champaign, abounding in pasturage, where they alighted and pitched their tents. They ate and drank and rested, and the princess Budour lay down to sleep. Presently, Kemerezzeman went in to her and found her lying asleep, in a shift of apricot-coloured silk, that showed all it should have covered, and a coif of cloth of gold embroidered with pearls and jewels. The breeze raised her shift and showed her breasts and navel and a belly whiter than snow, each one of whose dimples contained an ounce of benzoin ointment.[2] At this sight, his love and passion for her redoubled, and he recited the following verses:
If, whilst within my entrails the fires of hell did stir And flames raged high about me, ’twere spoken in my ear,
“Which wilt thou have the rather, a draught of water cold Or sight of her thou lovest?” I’d say, “The sight of her.”
