Oh stone-entempered heart of him! learn of his yielding grace
And bending form to show me grace and yielding to consent.
Oh my Prince Beautiful, thou hast an Overseer in place[1]
Who irketh me, and eke a Groom whose wrong cloth ne'er relent.
Indeed he lieth who hath said that all of loveliness
Was pent in Joseph: in thy charms there's many and many a Joe!
The Genii dread me when I stand and face to face address;
But meeting thee my fluttering heart its shame and terror show.
I take aversion semblance and I turn from thee in fright,
But more aversion I assume, more love from me dost claim;
That hair of jetty black! That brow e'er raying radiant light!
Those eyne wherein white jostles black![2] That dearling dainty frame!"
When Dahnash heard the poesy which Maymunah spake in praise of her beloved, he joyed with exceeding joy and marvelled with excessive wonderment.And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say
Now when it was the Hundred and Eighty-second Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Ifrit Dahnash heard the poesy which Maymunah spake in praise of her beloved, he shook for exceeding joy and said, "Thou hast celebrated thy beloved in song and thou hast indeed done well in praise of him whom thou lovest! And there is no help for it but that I also in my turn do my best to enfame my mistress, and recite somewhat in her honour." Then the Ifrit went up to the Lady Budur; and' kissing her between the eyes, looked at Maymunah and at his beloved Princess and recited the following verses, albeit he had no skill in poesy:—
"Love for my fair they chide in angry way; * Unjust for ignorance, yea unjustest they!
Ah lavish favours on the love mad, whom * Taste of thy wrath and parting woe shall slay:
- ↑ These lines, with the Názir (eye or steward), the Hájib (Groom of the Chambers or Chamberlain) and Joseph, are also repeated from Night cxiv. For the Nazir see Al-Hariri (Nos. xiii. and xxii.)
- ↑ The usual allusion to the Húr (Houris) from "Hangar," the white and black of the eye shining in contrast. The Persian Magi also placed in their Heaven (Bihisht or Minu) "Huran," or black-eyed nymphs, under the charge of the angel Zamiyád.
