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’Twixt a woman whose feet one’s lips kiss and a smooth-faced fawn, Who kisses the earth, the diff’rence is great indeed.
And a fifth:
My soul be thy ransom! Indeed, I’ve chosen thee out with intent, Because thou layest no eggs and dost not menstruate.
For, an I inclined to foregather with harlots, upon my faith, The wide, wide world for the brats I should get would prove too strait.
And a sixth:
Quoth she to me,—and sore enraged for wounded pride was she, For she in sooth had bidden me to that which might not be,—
“An if thou swive me not forthright, as one should swive his wife, If thou be made a cuckold straight, reproach it not to me.
Meseems thy yard is made of wax, for very flaccidness; For, when I rub it with my hand, it softens instantly.”
And a seventh:
Quoth she (for I to lie with her would not consent), “O fool, that followest on thy folly to the extent,
If thou reject my kaze for Kibleh[1] to thy yard, We’ll show thee one wherewith thou shalt be sure content.”
And an eighth:
She proffered me a tender kaze; But I, “I will not swive,” replied.
She drew back, saying, “From the truth Needs must he turn who’s turned aside;[2]
And swiving frontwise in our day Is all abandoned and decried;”
Then turned and showed me, as it were A lump of silver, her backside.
“Well done, O mistress mine! No more Am I in pain for thee,” I cried,
“Whose poke of all God’s openings[3] Is sure the amplest and most wide!”
- ↑ Kibleh, the point of the compass to which one turns in prayer. Mecca is the Kibleh of the Muslims, even as Jerusalem that of the Jews and Christians. The meaning of the text is obvious.
- ↑ i.e. of God.—Koran, li. 9.
- ↑ The word (futouh) translated “openings” may also be rendered “victories” or “benefits.”
