After
awhile, the Khalif ordered a damsel to sing, and she chanted the
following verses:
Life, as I live, has not been sweet since I did part from thee;
Would God I knew but how it fared with thee too after me!
If thou be weeping tears of brine for sev'rance of our loves, Ah,
then, indeed, 'twere meet my tears of very blood should be.
When my lady heard this, she fell back on the sofa in a swoon,
and I seized her hand and sprinkled rose-water on her face, till
she revived, when I said to her, "O my lady, do not bring ruin on
thyself and on all thy house-hold, but be patient, by the life of
thy beloved!" "Can aught befall me worse than death?" answered
she. "That, indeed, I long for, for, by Allah, my ease is
therein." Whilst we were talking, another damsel sang the
following words of the poet:
"Patience shall peradventure lead to solacement," quoth they; and
I, "Where's patience to be had, now he is gone away?"
He made a binding covenant with me to cut the cords Of patience,
when we two embraced upon the parting day.
When Shemsennehar heard this, she swooned away once more, which
when the Khalif saw, he came to her in haste and commanded the
wine-service to be removed and each damsel to return to her
chamber.
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