Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 3.djvu/292

264 But she wept before I wept and I wept to see her care And I said, "All the merit to precedent;"

Blame me not for loving her, now on self of Love I swear For her sake, for her only, these pains my soul torment.

She hath all the lere of Lukmán and Yúsuf's beauty lief; Sweet singer David's voice and Maryam's chastity:

While I've all Jacob's mourning and Jonah's prison-grief, And the sufferings of Job and old Adam's history:

Yet kill her not, albeit of my love for her I die; But ask her why my blood to her was lawful. ask her why?

When Marzawan recited this ode, the words fell upon Kamar al-Zaman's heart as freshness after fever and returning health; and he sighed and, turning his tongue in his mouth, said to his sire, "O my father, let this youth come and sit by my side."And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Kamar al-Zaman said to his sire, "O my father, allow this youth to come and sit by my side." Now when the King heard these words from his son, he rejoiced with exceeding joy, though at the first his heart had been set against Marzawan and he had determined that the stranger's head needs must be stricken off: but when he heard Kamar al-Zaman speak, his anger left him and he arose and drawing Marzawan to him, seated him by his son and turning to him said, "Praised be Allah for thy safety!" He replied, "Allah preserve thee! and preserve thy son to thee!" and called down blessings on the King. Then the King asked, "From what country art thou?"; and he answered, "From the Islands of the Inland Sea, the kingdom of King Ghayur, Lord of the Isles and the Seas and the Seven Palaces." Quoth King Shahriman,