Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 5.djvu/88

 the Destroyer of Delights and the Sunderer of societies; and glory be to Him who changeth not neither ceaseth, and to whom everything returneth! And they also tell a tale of

ABU NOWAS WITH THE THREE BOYS AND THE CALIPH HARUN AL-RASHID [FN#82]

Abu Nowas one day shut himself up and, making ready a richly-furnished feast, collected for it meats of all kinds and of every colour that lips and tongue can desire. Then he went forth, to seek a minion worthy of such entertainment, saying, "Allah, my Lord and my Master, I beseech Thee to send me one who befitteth this banquet and who is fit to carouse with me this day!" Hardly had he made an end of speaking when he espied three youths handsome and beardless, as they were of the boys of Paradise, [FN#83] differing in complexion but fellows in incomparable beauty; and all hearts yearned with desire to the swaying of their bending shapes, even to what saith the poet,

"I passed a beardless pair without compare *         And cried, 'I love you, both you ferly fir!'    'Money'd?' quoth one: quoth I, 'And lavish too;' *         Then said the fair pair, 'Pere, c'est notre affaire.'"

Now Abu Nowas was given to these joys and loved to sport and make merry with fair boys and cull the rose from every brightly blooming check, even as saith the bard,

Full many a reverend Shaykh feels sting of flesh, * Loves pretty faces, shows at Pleasure's depot: Awakes in Mosul, [FN#84] land of purity; * And all the day dreams only of Aleppo. [FN#85]

So he accosted them with the salutation, and they returned his