Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 4.djvu/165

 so done; when the Lady Dunya took the lute and playing a lively measure, chanted these couplets,

'I swear by swayings of that form so fair, * Aye from thy parting fiery Pity a heart which burneth in thy love, * O bright as fullest moon in blackest air! Vouchsafe thy boons to him who ne'er will cease * In light of     wine-cup all thy charms declare, Amid the roses which with varied hues * Are to the myrtle- bush a mere despair.'

When she had finished her verse I took the lute from her hands and, playing a quaint and not vulgar prelude sang the following verses,

'Laud to my Lord who gave thee all of loveliness; * Myself amid thy thralls I willingly confess: O thou, whose eyes and glances captivate mankind, * Pray that I 'scape those arrows shot with all thy stress! Two hostile rivals water and enflaming fire * Thy cheek hath married, which for marvel I profess: Thou art Sa'ír in heart of me and eke Na'ím; * Thou agro- dolce, eke heart's sweetest bitterness.'

When she heard this my song she rejoiced with exceeding joy; then, dismissing her slave women, she brought me to a most goodly place, where they had spread us a bed of various colours. She did off her clothes and I had a lover's privacy of her and found her a pearl unpierced and a filly unridden. So I rejoiced in her and never in my born days spent I a more delicious night."—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the Two Hundred and Ninety-second Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Mohammed bin Ali the Jeweller continued: "So I went in unto the Lady Dunya, daughter of Yahya bin Khálid the Barmecide, and I found her