Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 4.djvu/222



"Cleave fast to her thou lovestand let the envious rail amain,     For calumny and envy ne'er to favour love were fain. Lo, whilst I slept, in dreams I saw thee lying by my side And,     from thy lips the sweetest, sure, of limpid springs did     drain. Yea, true and certain all I saw is, as I will avouch, And 'spite     the envier, thereto I surely will attain. There is no goodlier sight, indeed, for eyes to look upon, Than     when one couch in its embrace enfoldeth lovers twain. Each to the other's bosom clasped, clad in their twinned delight,     Whilst hand with hand and arm with arm about their necks     enchain Lo, when two hearts are straitly knit in passion and desire, But     on cold iron smite the folk who chide at them in vain. Thou, that for loving censurest the votaries of love, Canst thou     assain a heart diseased or heal-a cankered brain? If in thy time thou kind but one to love thee and be true, I rede thee cast the world away and with that one remain."

So they lay together till the morning and love for the other waxed firmly fixed in the heart of each. And on rising, Zumurrud took the curtain and embroidered it with coloured silks and purpled it with silver and gold thread and she added thereto a border depicting round about it all manner of birds and beasts; nor is there in the world a feral but she wrought his semblance. This she worked in eight days, till she had made an end of it, when she trimmed it and glazed and ironed it and gave it to her lord, saying, "Carry it to the bazar and sell it to one of the merchants at fifty dinars; but beware lest thou sell it to a passer-by, as this would cause a separation between me and thee, for we have foes who are not unthoughtful of us." "I hear and I obey," answered he and, repairing to the bazar, sold the curtain to a merchant, as she bade him; after which he bought a piece of silk for another curtain and gold and silver and silken thread as before and what they needed of food, and brought all this to her, giving her the rest of the money. Now every eight days she made a curtain, which he sold for fifty dinars, and on this wise passed a whole year. At the end of that time, he went as usual to the bazar with a curtain, which he gave to the broker; and there came up to him a Nazarene who bid him sixty dinars for it; but he refused, and the Christian continued bidding higher and higher, till he came to an hundred dinars and bribed the broker with ten ducats. So the man returned to Ali Shar and told him of the proffered price and urged him to accept the offer and sell the article at the Nazarene's valuation, saying, "O my lord, be not afraid of this Christian for that