Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 1.djvu/80

62 ceased not to mourn and lament for a whole year, at the end of which time she said to me, “I wish to build me in thy palace a tomb with a cupola and set it apart for mourning and call it House of Lamentations.” Quoth I, “Do what seemeth good to thee.” So she built herself a house of mourning, roofed with a dome, and a monument in the midst like the tomb of a saint. Thither she transported the slave and lodged him in the tomb. He was exceeding weak and from the day I wounded him he had remained unable to do her any service or to speak or do aught but drink; but he was still alive, because his hour was not yet come. She used to visit him morning and evening in the mausoleum and carry him wine and broths to drink and weep and make moan over him; and thus she did for another year, whilst I ceased not to have patience with her and pay no heed to her doings, till one day I came upon her unawares and found her weeping and saying, “Why art thou absent from my sight, O delight of my heart? Speak to me, O my life! speak to me, O my love!” And she recited the following verses:

And she wept and recited the following:

And again the following: