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troubled and distracted for love of her. So he kissed her hands and wept sore, and they ceased not from tender reproaches and converse and reciting verses, nor was there aught between them other than this, until the call to afternoon prayer, when they bethought them of parting and she said to him, ‘O light of mine eyes and kernel of my heart, the time of parting is come: when shall we meet again?’ ‘By Allah,’ replied he (and indeed her words pierced him as with arrows), ‘I love not the mention of parting!’ Then she went forth of the pavilion, and he turned and saw her sighing sighs that would melt the rock and weeping tears like rain; whereupon he for love was sunken in the sea of desolations and recited the following verses:
Distraction, O wish of the heart, are anew For love of thee irketh me: how shall I do?
By thy face, like the dawn when it breaks through the dark, And thy locks, that resemble the night in their hue,
And thy shape like the branch, when it bends in the breeze And the North wind shakes from it the pearls of the dew,
And the glance of thine eyes like the antelope’s gaze, That the eyes of the noble and generous ensue,
And thy waist worn to nought by the weight of thy hips, These so heavy, so slender the other to view;
By the wine of thy spittle, the sweetest of drink, Pure musk and fresh water, to thee do I sue;
O gazelle of the tribe, let thine image in sleep Ease my soul of the grief that enforceth it rue!
When she heard his verses in praise of her, she turned back and embracing him, with a heart on fire for the anguish of parting, fire which nought might assuage save kisses and embraces, said, ‘Quoth the byword, Patience behoves a lover and not the lack of it. And I will surely contrive a means for our reunion.’ Then she bade him adieu and went away, knowing not where she set her feet, for stress of love; nor did she stay her steps till she found herself in her own chamber. When she was gone, passion
