Long, long have I bewailed the sev'rance of our loves, ○ With tears that from my lids streamed down like burning rain;
And vowed that, if the days deign reunite us two, ○ My lips should never speak of severance again:
Joy hath o'erwhelmed me so that, for the very stress ○ Of that which gladdens me to weeping I am fain.
Tears are become to you a habit, O my eyes, ○ So that ye weep as well for gladness as for pain.[1]
And having finished her verse, the Lady Budur stood up forthwith and, firmly setting her feet to the wall, strained with all her might upon the collar of iron, till she brake it from her neck and snapped the chains. Then going forth from behind the curtain she threw herself on Kamar al-Zaman and kissed him on the mouth, like a pigeon feeding its young. [2] And she embraced him with all the stress of her love and longing and said to him, "O my lord do I wake or sleep and hath the Almighty indeed vouchsafe] us reunion after disunion? Laud be to Allah who hath our loves repaired, even after we despaired!" Now when the eunuch saw her in this case, he went off running to King Ghayur and, kissing the ground before him, said, "O my lord, know that this Astrologer is indeed the Shaykh of all astrologers, who are fools to him, all of them; for verily he hath cured thy daughter while standing behind the curtain and without going in to her." Quoth the King, "Look well to it, is this news true?" Answered the eunuch, "O my lord, rise and come and see for thyself how she hath found strength to break the iron chains and is come forth to the Astrologer, kissing and embracing him." Thereupon the King arose and went in to his daughter who, when she saw him, stood up in haste and covered her head, [3] and recited these two couplets:—
The toothstick love I not; for when I say, ○ "Siwák," [4] I miss thee, for it sounds "Siwá-ka".
The caper-tree I love; for when I say, * "Arák"[5] it sounds I look on thee, "Ará-ka."
- ↑ These lines are repeated from Night Ixxv.: with Mr. Payne's permission I give his rendering (iii. 153) by way of variety.
- ↑ The comparison is characteristically Arab.
- ↑ Not her "face": the head, and especially the back of the head, must always be kept covered, even before the father.
- ↑ Arab. "Siwák"=a tooth-stick; "Siwá-ka"=lit. other than thou.
- ↑ Arab. "Arák"=tooth stick of the wild caper-tree; "Ará-ka" lit.=I see thee. The capparis spinosa is a common desert-growth and the sticks about a span long (usually called Miswák), are sold in quantities at Meccah after being dipped in Zemzem
