Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 1.djvu/273

251 that cost me a thousand sighs. My heart was captivated with her love and I could not take my eyes off her face; and I repeated the following verses:

When she heard this, she answered me by repeating the following verses:

Then she said to me, ‘O youth, hast thou any handsome stuffs?’ ‘O my lady,’ answered I, ‘thy slave is poor: but wait till the merchants open their shops, and I will get thee what thou wilt.’ Then we sat talking, she and I, whilst I was drowned in the sea of her love and dazed with passion for her, till the merchants opened their shops, when I rose and fetched her all she sought, to the value of five thousand dirhems. She gave the stuffs to the slave and leaving the bazaar, mounted the mule and rode away, without telling me whence she came, and I was ashamed to ask her. So I became answerable to the merchants for the price of the goods and thus took on myself a debt of five thousand dirhems. Then I went home, drunken with love of her, and they set the evening-meal before me. I ate a mouthful and lay down to rest, musing upon her beauty and grace: but sleep came not to me. A week