If I compare thee to the sun, thou passest not away, Whilst the
sun setteth from the sky and fails anon of light.
Perfect, indeed, thy beauties are; they stupefy the wise Nor ev'n
the eloquent avail to praise thy charms aright.
The eunuch stationed Kemerezzeman behind the curtain of the
princess's door and the prince said to him, 'Whether of the two
wilt thou liefer have me do, cure thy lady from here or go in and
cure her within the curtain?' The eunuch marvelled at his words
and answered, 'It were more to thine honour to cure her from
here.' So Kemerezzeman sat down behind the curtain and taking
out pen and inkhorn and paper, wrote the following: 'This is the
letter of one whom passion torments and whom desire consumes and
sorrow and misery destroy; one who despairs of life and looks for
nothing but death, whose mourning heart has neither comforter nor
helper, whose sleepless eyes have none to succour them against
affliction, whose day is passed in fire and his night in torment,
whose body is wasted for much emaciation and there comes to him
no messenger from his beloved:
I write with a heart devoted to thee and the thought of thee And
an eyelid, wounded for weeping tears of the blood of me.
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