Page:Tales from the Arabic, Vol 3.djvu/31

15 willow-wand or a bamboo-cane, followed by a black slave-girl, bearing the lute. When she came to the young man, she saluted him and sat down by his side. Then she took the lute from the slave-girl and tuning it, smote thereon in four-and-twenty modes, after which she returned to the first mode and sang the following verses:

Therewithal the young man was moved to delight and exclaimed, “By Allah, thou sayest well, O Sitt el Milah! Let me hear more.” Then he handselled her with fifty dinars and they drank and the cups went round among them; and her seller said to her, “O Sitt el Milah, this is the season of leave-taking; so let us hear somewhat on the subject.” Accordingly she struck the lute and avouching that which was in her heart, sang the following verses:

I am filled full of longing pain and memory and dole, That from the wasted body’s wounds distract the anguished soul. Think not, my lords, that I forget: the case is still the same. When such a fever fills the heart, what leach can make it whole? And if a creature in his tears could swim, as in a sea, I to do this of all that breathe were surely first and sole.