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with my flesh and my bones; and say to her that I need one who shall deliver me from the sea of destruction and save me from this dilemma; for of a truth fortune oppresseth me with its vicissitudes; and is there any helper to free me from its defilements?’ So saying, he wept and the damsel wept for his weeping. Then she took leave of him and Aboulhusn went out with her and bade her farewell. So she went her way and he returned to his shop, which he opened, and sat down there, according to his wont; Night clix.but as he sat, he found his bosom straitened and his heart oppressed and was troubled about his case. He ceased not from melancholy thought the rest of that day and night, and on the morrow he betook himself to Ali ben Bekkar, with whom he sat till the folk withdrew, when he asked him how he did. Ali began to complain of passion and descant upon the longing and distraction that possessed him, ending by repeating the following words of the poet:
Folk have made moan of passion before me of past years, And live and dead for absence have suffered pains and fears;
But what within my bosom I harbour, with mine eyes I’ve never seen the like of nor heard it with mine ears.
And also these:
I’ve suffered for thy love what Caïs, that madman[1] hight, Did never undergo for love of Leila bright.
Yet chase I not the beasts o’ the desert, as did he; For madness hath its kinds for this and th’ other wight.
Quoth Aboulhusn, ‘Never did I see or hear of one like unto thee in thy love! If thou sufferest all this transport and sickness and trouble, being enamoured of one who returns thy passion, how would it be with thee, if she whom thou lovest were contrary and perfidious? Meseems, thy case will be discovered, if thou abide thus.’
- ↑ Mejnoun, the well-known lover of Eastern romance.
