Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 5.djvu/183



And the saying of another poet,

'Quoth our Imam, Abu Nowas, who was * For mad debauch and waggishness renowned: 'O tribe that loves the cheeks of boys, take fill * Of joys in Paradise shall ne'er be found!'

So if any one enlarge in praise of a slave girl and wish to enhance her value by the mention of her beauties, he likeneth her to a youth,'" --And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the Four Hundred and Twenty-first Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Shaykh continued, "'So if any one enlarge in praise of a slave girl and wish to enhance her value by the mention of her beauties, he likeneth her to a youth, because of the illustrious qualities that belong to the male, even as saith the poet,

'Boy like of backside, in the deed of kind, * She sways, as sways the wand like boughs a-wind.'

An youths, then, were not better and fairer than girls, why should these be likened to them? And know also (Almighty Allah preserve thee!) that a youth is easy to be led, adapting himself to every rede, pleasant of converse and manners, inclining to assent rather than dissent, especially when his side face is newly down'd and his upper lip is first embrowned, and the purple lights of youth on his cheeks abound, so that he is like the full moon sound; and how goodly is the saying of Abu Tammám [FN#236],

'The slanderers said 'There's hair upon his cheeks'; * Quoth I, 'Exceed not, that's no blemish there.' When he could bear that haling of his hips * And pearl-beads shaded by mustachio hair; [FN#237] And Rose swore solemn, holiest oath that is, * From that fair cheek she nevermore would fare I spoke with eyelids without need of speech, * And they who answered me his eyebrows were. He's even fairer than thou knewest him, * And cheek down guards from all would overdare.