Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 4.djvu/119

95 Ay, once the cups went round with joyance and delight And to the smitten lutes, the goblets did we drain, What time my love kept troth and I was mad for him And in faith’s heaven, the star of happiness did reign. But lo, he turned away from me, sans fault of mine! Is there a bitterer thing than distance and disdain? Upon his cheeks there bloom a pair of roses red, Blown ready to be plucked; ah God, those roses twain! Were’t lawful to prostrate oneself to any else Than God, I’d sure prostrate myself upon the swain.

Then rose the six girls and kissing the ground before their lord, said to him, “Judge thou between us, O our lord!” He looked at their beauty and grace and the difference of their colours and praised God the Most High and glorified Him: then said he, “There is none of you but has read the Koran and learnt to sing and is versed in the chronicles of the ancients and the doings of past peoples; so it is my desire that each of you rise and pointing to her opposite, praise herself and dispraise her rival; that is to say, let the blonde point to the black, the plump to the slender and the yellow to the brunette; and after, the latter shall, each in turn, do the like with the former; and be this illustrated with citations from the Holy Koran and somewhat of anecdotes and verse, so as to show forth your culture and elegance of discourse.” Quoth they, “We hear and obey.”

So the blonde rose first and pointing at the black, said to her, “Out on thee, blackamoor! It is told that whiteness saith, ‘I am the shining light, I am the rising full moon.’ My colour is patent and my forehead is resplendent, and of my beauty quoth the poet:

A blonde with smooth and polished cheeks, right delicate and fair, As if a pearl in beauty hid, as in a shell, she were. Her shape a splendid Alif is, her smile a medial Mim And over it her eyebrows make inverted Nouns, a pair.