Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 9.djvu/30

12 I fell aweepinga-weeping [sic] for fear of parting and poured forth the tears of the eye, reciting the following verses:

She strove to solace me with soft speech, but I was drowned in the sea of passion, fearing, even in the midst of union, the anguish of separation, for excess of longing and desire; and I bethought me of the misery of absence and estrangement and repeated these verses:

Then she called for food and there came four damsels, high-bosomed maids, who set before us meats and fruits and sweetmeats and flowers and wine, such as befit none but kings. So we ate and sat at the wine, compassed about with flowers and herbs of sweet savour, in a chamber fit only for kings. Presently, one of her maids brought her a bag of silk, which she opened and taking thereout a lute, laid it in her lap and touched its strings, whereupon it complained, as the child complains to its mother, and she sang the following verses:

On this wise, O Commander of the Faithful, I abode with her, month after month, till all my money was spent;