Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/49

37 When Zein el Mewasif heard this, she knew that it was Mesrour and wept, she and her maidens, and said to him, ‘I conjure thee by Allah, O Mesrour, turn back, lest my husband see us!’ At these words he swooned away; and when he revived, they took leave of each other and he recited the following verses:

Then he clung to the litter, weeping and lamenting, whilst she besought him to turn back ere morning, for fear of discovery. So he came up to her and bidding her farewell a second time, fell down in a swoon. He lay a great while without life, and when he came to himself, he found the caravan out of sight. So he turned in the direction of their travel and inhaled the breeze that blew from their quarter, chanting the following verses:

No wind of nearness to the lover’s blown But of the pains of longing he makes moan. The breeze of dawning blows on him; he wakes And in the world he finds himself alone. Blood, mingled with his streaming tears, he weeps, For languor on the bed of sickness prone; For loved ones lost he weeps; his heart with them Fares midst the camels over sand and stone.