Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 5.djvu/218



"Her fair shape ravisheth, if face to face she did appear, * And if she turn, for severance from her she slayeth sheer. Sun-like, full-moon-like, sapling-like, unto her character * Estrangement no wise appertains nor cruelty austere. Under the bosom of her shift the garths of Eden are * And the full-moon revolveth still upon her neck-rings' sphere." [FN#287]

She seemed a full moon rising and a gazelle browsing, a girl of nine plus five [FN#288] shaming the moon and sun, even as saith of her the sayer eloquent and ingenious,

"Semblance of full-moon Heaven bore, * When five and five are conjoined by four; 'Tis not my sin if she made of me * Its like when it riseth horizon o'er." [FN#289]

Clean of skin, odoriferous of breath, it seemed as if she were of fire fashioned and of crystal moulded; rose-red was the cheek of her and perfect the shape and form of her; even as one saith of her, describing her,

"Scented with sandal [FN#290] and musk, right proudly doth she go, * With gold and silver and rose and saffron-colour aglow. A flower in a garden she is, a pearl in an ouch of gold * Or an image in chapel [FN#291] set for worship of high and low. Slender and shapely she is; vivacity bids her arise, * But the weight of her hips says, 'Sit, or softly and slowly go.' Whenas her favours I seek and sue for my heart's desire, * 'Be gracious,' her beauty says; but her coquetry answers, 'No.' Glory to Him who made beauty her portion, and that * Of her lover to be the prate of the censurers, heigho!" [FN#292]

She captivated all who saw her, with the excellence of her beauty