Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/206

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Then he wept till he fainted away a fourth time, and presently recovering, recited the following lines:

When his sisters heard this and saw his condition, the transport of love and longing and the passion and distraction that possessed him were manifest to them and they questioned him of his case. He wept and told them what had befallen in his absence and how his wife had taken flight with her children, wherefore they grieved for him and asked him what she said at leave-taking. ‘O my sisters,’ answered he, ‘she said to my mother, “Tell thy son, when he cometh and the nights of separation are long upon him and he craveth reunion with me and meeting and the winds of love and longing agitate him,