Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 2.djvu/54

 34 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. bounty that thou let this damsel sing an air, that I may hear her." 1 So Nur al-Din said, "O Anis al-Jalis!" and she answered "Yes!" and he continued, " By my life, sing us something for the sake of this fisherman who wisheth so much to hear thee." Thereupon she took the lute and struck the strings, after she had screwed them tight and tuned them, and sang these improvised verses : The fawn of a maid hent her lute in hand o And her music made us right mettlesome : For her song gave hearing to ears stone-deaf, o While Brava ! Brava ! ex- claimed the dumb. Then she played again and played so ravishingly, that she charmed their wits and burst out improvising and singing these couplets : You have honoured us visiting this our land, o And your splendour illumined the glooms that blent : So 'tis due that for you I perfume my place o With rose-water, musk and the camphor-scent ! Hereupon the Caliph was agitated, and emotion so overpowered him that he could not command himself for excess of pleasure, and he exclaimed, " By Allah, good ! by Allah, good ! by Allah, good!" 2 Asked Nur al-Din, " O fisherman, doth this damsel please thee ? " and the Caliph answered, "Ay, by Allah!" Whereupon said Nur al-Din, " She is a gift to thee, a gift of the generous who repenteth him not of his givings and who will never revoke his gift ! " Then he sprang to his feet and, taking a loose robe, threw it over the fisherman and bade him receive the damsel and be gone. But she looked at him and said, " O my lord, art thou faring forth without farewell ? If it must be so, at least stay till I bid thee good-bye and make known my case." And she began versifying in these verses : !When love and longing and regret are mine, o Must not this body show of ills a sign ? My love ! say not, " Thou soon shalt be consoled "; o When state speaks state none shall allay my pine. If living man could swim upon his tears, o I first should float on waters of these eyne : There would be nothing singular in this request. The democracy of despotism' levels all men outside the pale of politics and religion.
 * '^Wa'llahi tayyib!" an exclamation characteristic of the Egyptian Moslem.