Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 5.djvu/63

 failed him; fire was kindled in his vitals and he returned to his lodging, where he passed the day in trouble and transports of grief, without finding ease or patience, till night darkened upon him, when his yearning and love-longing redoubled. Thereupon, by way of concealment, he disguised himself in the ragged garb of a Fakir, [FN#42] and set out wandering at random through the glooms of night, distracted and knowing not whither he went. So he wandered on all that night and next day, till the heat of the sun waxed fierce and the mountains flamed like fire and thirst was grievous upon him. Presently, he espied a tree, by whose side was a thin thread of running water; so he made towards it and sitting down in the shade, on the bank of the rivulet, essayed to drink, but found that the water had no taste in his mouth; [FN#43] and, indeed his colour had changed and his face had yellowed, and his feet were swollen with travel and travail. So he shed copious tears and repeated these couplets,

"The lover is drunken with love of friend; *     On a longing that groweth his joys depend:   Love-distracted, ardent, bewildered, lost *     From home, nor may food aught of pleasure lend:   How can life be delightsome to one in love, *     And from lover parted, 'twere strange, unkenned!   I melt with the fire of my pine for them, *     And the tears down my cheek in a stream descend.   Shall I see them, say me, or one that comes *     From the camp, who th' afflicted heart shall tend?"

And after thus reciting he wept till he wetted the hard dry ground; but anon without loss of time he rose and fared on again over waste and wold, till there came out upon him a lion, with a neck buried in tangled mane, a head the bigness of a dome, a mouth wider than the door thereof and teeth like elephants' tusks. Now when Uns al-Wujud saw him, he gave himself up for lost, and turning [FN#44] towards the Temple of Meccah, pronounced the professions of the faith and prepared for death. He had read in