Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/376

346 So shall reproach it to me, if I’m all in her love absorbed, ’Twixt discord in her and accord divided, ’twixt gladness and woe? ’Tis she who hath captived my heart with the amorous grace of her port; And what shall the true lover’s heart protect from so charming a foe?

When he had made an end of these verses, the princess strained him to her bosom and kissed him on the mouth and between the eyes; whereupon life returned to him and he fell to complaining to her of that which he suffered for stress of love and tyranny of passion and excess of transport and distraction and all he had endured for the hardness of her heart. She kissed his hands and feet and unveiled her head, whereupon the darkness gathered and the full moons arose and shone therein. Then said she to him, ‘O my beloved and the term of my wishes, would the day of estrangement had never been and God grant it may never return between us!’ And they embraced and wept together, whilst she recited the following verses:

Then passion overcame her and she was distraught for love and wept copious tears, streaming down like rain. This inflamed the prince’s heart and he in turn became