whom longing waylayeth ● and wakeful misery slayeth ● one who despaireth of living ● and looketh for naught but dying ● with whose mourning heart ● nor comforter nor helper taketh part ● One whose sleepless eyes ● none succoureth from anxieties ● whose day is passed in fire ● and his night in torturing desire ● whose body is wasted for much emaciation ● and no messenger from his beloved bringeth him consolation." And after this he indited the following couplets:—
I write with heart devoted to thy thought, ○ And eyelids chafed by tears of blood they bled;
And body clad, by loving pine and pain, ○ In shirt of leanness, and worn down to thread,
To thee complain I of Love's tormentry, ○ Which ousted hapless Patience from her stead:
A toi! show favour and some mercy deign, ○ For Passion's cruel hands my vitals shred.
And beneath his lines he wrote these cadenced sentences, "The heart's pain is removed ● by union with the beloved ● and whomso his lover paineth ● only Allah assaineth! ● If we or you have wrought deceit ● may the deceiver win defeat! ● There is naught goodlier than a lover who keeps faith ● with the beloved who works him scathe." Then, by way of subscription, he wrote, "From the distracted and despairing man ● whom love and longing trepan ● from the lover under passion's ban ● the prisoner of transport and distraction ● from this Kamar al-Zaman ● son of Shahriman ● to the peerless one ● of the fair Houris the pearl-union ● to the Lady Budur * daughter of King Al Ghayur ● Know thou that by night I am sleepless ● and by day in distress ● consumed with increasing wasting and pain ● and longing and love unfain ● abounding in sighs ● with tear flooded eyes ● by passion captive ta'en ● of Desire the slain ● with heart seared by the parting of us twain ● the debtor of longing bane, of sickness cup-companion ● I am the sleepless one, who never closeth eye ● the slave of love, whose tears run never dry ● for the fire of my heart is still burning ● and never hidden is the flame of my yearning." Then on the margin Kamar al-Zaman wrote this admired verse:—
Salem from graces hoarded by my Lord ○ To her, who holds my heart and soul in hoard!
