Page:The Celebrated Romance of the Stealing of the Mare.djvu/71

 (A castle you had deemed it)—and she said, "O thou Salame,

Now hast thou made us glad—for see, the tribe rejoiceth.

To-day is white through thee, O prince, O lion of Amer."

And she brought the basin and ewer, and stood there in her beauty.

Shining, unveiled, her hair in plaits which hung to her girdle.

And I washed and prayed alone, as is ordered by the precept.

And anon she came again, and in her hand she brought me

Somewhat that I might eat, meats fit for kings, in dishes.

And she said, "O Abu Zeyd, there is time if thou wouldst slumber.

And she spread a bed before me with her own hands for sleeping;

And sprinkled it with musk, sweet-scenting all the chamber.

And she of the plaits returned, and yet again, with coverings.

Like a gazelle, I deemed, the wild fawn of the desert.

And her eyes! May God be praised if thou shouldst gaze within them!

A bird as it flew might fall, from its midmost way beholding.