For myself, I
know that I am surely lost past recourse, and the cause of my
destruction is nought but excess of passion and love-longing and
desire and separation from my beloved, after union with her; but
I beseech God to deliver us from this predicament.' Then they
continued to look on, till the banquet was spread before the
Khalif, when he turned to one of the damsels and said to her, 'O
Gheram, let us hear some of thine enchanting songs.' So she tool:
the lute and tuning it, sang as follows:
The longing of a Bedouin maid, whose folk are far away, Who
yearns after the willow of the Hejaz and the bay,--
Whose tears, when she on travellers lights, might for their water
serve And eke her passion, with its heat, their bivouac-fire
purvey,--
Is not more fierce nor ardent than my longing for my love, Who
deem: that I commit a crime in loving him alway.
When Shemsennehar heard this, she slipped off the stool on which
she sat and fell to the earth insensible; where upon the damsels
came and lifted her up. When Ali ben Bekkar saw this from the
gallery, he also fell down senseless, and Aboulhusn said, 'Verily
Fate hath apportioned passion equally between you!' As he spoke,
in came the damsel who had brought them thither and said to him,
'O Aboulhusn, arise and come down, thou and thy friend, for of a
truth the world is grown strait upon us and I fear lest our case
be discovered or the Khalif become aware of you: so, except you
descend at once, we are dead folk.
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