Kemerezzeman threw himself on the couch,
broken-spirited and mournful-hearted, blaming himself and
repenting of his unseemly behaviour to his father, when
repentance availed him nothing, and saying, 'May God curse
marriage and girls and women, the traitresses! Would I had
hearkened to my father and married! It were better for me than
this prison.'
Meanwhile, King Shehriman abode on his throne till sundown, when
he took the Vizier apart and said to him, 'O Vizier, thine advice
is the cause of all this that hath befallen between me and my
son. What doth thou counsel me to do now?' 'O King,' answered
he, 'leave thy son in prison for the space of fifteen days; then
send for him and command him to marry, and he will not again
gainsay thee.' The King accepted the Vizier's counsel and lay
down to sleep, troubled at heart concerning Kemerezzeman, for he
loved him very dearly, having no other child, and it was his wont
not to sleep, save with his arm about his son's neck. So he
passed the night in trouble and unease, tossing from side to
side, as he were laid on coals of tamarisk-wood; for he was
overcome with inquietude and sleep visited him not all that
night; but his eyes ran over with tears and he repeated the
following verses:
The night, whilst the slanderers sleep, is tedious unto me;
Suffice thee a heart that aches for parting's agony!
I cry, whilst my night for care grows long and longer aye, "O
light of the morning, say, is there no returning for thee?"
And these also:
When the Ple?ads I saw leave to shine in their stead And over the
pole-star a lethargy shed
And the maids of the Bier[FN#22] in black raiment unveiled, I
knew that the lamp of the morning was dead.
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