The princess looked at him and knowing
him, said to him, 'O my brother, thou hast been absent on thy
travels and we have been cut off from news of thee.' 'True,'
answered he; 'but God has brought me back in safety and I am now
minded to set out again; nor has aught delayed me but the sad
news I hear of thee; wherefore my heart ached for thee and I came
to thee, so haply I may rid thee of thy malady.' 'O my brother,'
rejoined she, 'thinkest thou it is madness ails me?' 'Yes,'
answered he, and she said, 'Not so, by Allah! It is even as says
the poet:
Quoth they, "Thou'rt surely mad for him thou lov'st;" and I
replied, "Indeed the sweets of life belong unto the raving
race.
Lo, those who love have not, for that, the upper hand of fate;
Only the madman 'tis, I trow, o'ercometh time and space.
Yes, I am mad; so bring me him for whom ye say I'm mad; And if he
heal my madness, spare to blame me for my case."'
Then she told him that she was in love, and he said, 'Tell me thy
story and what befell thee: peradventure God may discover to me a
means of deliverance for thee.' 'Know then,' said she, 'that one
night I awoke from sleep, in the last watch of the night, and
sitting up, saw by my side the handsomest of youths, as he were a
willow-wand or an Indian cane, the tongue fails to describe him.
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