Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 4.djvu/275



She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the handmaids answered the man of Al-Yaman, "'We hear and we obey!' Accordingly the blonde rose first and, pointing at the black girl, said to her: 'Out on thee, blackamoor! It is told by tradition that whiteness saith, 'I am the shining light, I am the rising moon of the fourteenth night. My hue is patent and my brow is resplendent and of my beauty quoth the poet,'

'White girl with softly rounded polished cheeks * As if a pearl concealed by Beauty's boon: Her stature Alif-like; her smile like Mím * And o'er her eyes two brows that bend like Nún. 'Tis as her glance were arrow, and her brows * Bows ever bent to     shoot Death-dart eftsoon: If cheek and shape thou view, there shalt thou find * Rose, myrtle, basil and Narcissus wone. Men wont in gardens plant and set the branch, * How many garths thy stature-branch cloth own!'

'So my colour is like the hale and healthy day and the newly culled orange spray and the star of sparkling ray; and indeed quoth Almighty Allah, in His precious Book, to his prophet Moses (on whom be peace!), Put thy hand into thy bosom; it shall come forth white, without hurt.' And again He saith, But they whose faces shall become white, shall be in the mercy of Allah; therein shall they remain forever.' My colour is a sign, a miracle, and my loveliness supreme and my beauty a term extreme. It is on the like of me that raiment showeth fair and fine and to the like of me that hearts incline. Moreover, in whiteness are many excellences; for instance, the snow falleth white from heaven,