Then Shemsennehar chose out ten
handmaids and ten singing-women to attend on them and dismissing
the rest to their apartments, bade some of those who remained
smite the lute. They did as she bade them and one of them sang
the following verses:
My soul be a ransom for him who returned my salute with a smile
And revived in my breast the longing for union after
despair!
The hands of passion have brought my secret thoughts to the light
And that which is in my bosom unto my censors laid bare.
The very tears of my eyes press betwixt me and him, As though
they, even as I, enamoured of him were.
When she had finished, Shemsennehar rose and filling a. cup,
drank it off, then filled it again and gave it to Ali ben Bekkar;
after which she bade another damsel sing; and she sang the
following verses:
My tears, as they flow, are alike to my wine, as I brim it up!
For my eyes pour forth of their lids the like of what froths
in my cup.[FN#6]
By Allah, I know not, for sure, whether my eyelids it is Run over
with wine or else of my tears it is that I sup!
Then Ali ben Bekkar drank off his cup and returned it to
Shemsennehar. She filled it again and gave it to Aboulhusn, who
drank it off.
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