Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 3.djvu/208

182 in hand ink-case and paper, wrote the following reply:—"In the name of Allah, the Compassionating, the Compassionate! Thy letter hath reached me, O my lady, and hath given ease to a sprite worn out with passion and love-longing, and hath brought healing to a wounded heart cankered with languishment and sickness; for indeed I am become even as saith the poet:—

And know that complaining is unavailing; but it easeth him whom love-longing disordereth and separation destroyeth and, with repeating:—Union, I keep myself comforted and how fine is the saying of the poet who said:—

When he had made an end of this letter, he handed it to Abu al-Hasan, saying, "Read it and give it to the damsel." So he took it and read it and its words stirred his soul and its meaning wounded his vitals. Then he committed it to the girl, and when she took it Ali bin Bakkar said to her, "Salute thy lady for me and acquaint her with my love and longing and how passion is blended with my flesh and my bones; and say to her that in very deed I need a woman who shall snatch me from the sea of destruction and save me from this dilemma; for of a truth Fortune oppresseth me with her vicissitudes; and is there any helper to free me from her turpi-