第48章(1 / 3)

Since the belov?d's gone,O soul,forswear the sweet of life Nor covet its continuance,for,wanting him,'twere vain.

List,O my friend,unto the tale of love,and God forbid That I should speak and that thy heart to hearken should not deign!

As'twere El Asmai himself,of passion I discourse Fancies rare and marvellous,linked in an endless chain.'[167]

--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the Eight Hundred and Twenty-third Night; She continued,When Hasan went in to his wife he saw his children and heard her repeating the verses afore mentioned.[168] Then she turned right and left,seeking the cause of her children's crying out,'O our father!'but saw no one and marvelled that her sons should name their sire at that time and call upon him.But when Hasan heard her verses,he wept till he swooned away and the tears railed down his cheeks like rain.Then he drew near the children and raised the cap from his head unseen of his wife;whereupon they saw him and they knew him and cried out,saying;'O our father!'Their mother fell a-weeping again,when she heard them name their sire's name and said,'There is no avoiding the doom which Almighty Allah hath decreed!'adding,'O Strange!

What garreth them think of their father at this time and call upon him,albeit it is not of their wont?'Then she wept and recited these couplets;'The land of lamping moon is bare and drear;* O eyne of me pour forth the brimming tear!

They marched: how shall I now be patient? * That I nor heart nor patience own I swear!

O ye,who marched yet bide in heart of me,* Will you,O lords of me,return to that we were?

What harm if they return and I enjoy * Meeting,and they had ruth on tears of care?

Upon the parting-day they dimmed these eyne,* For sad surprise;and lit the flames that flare.

Sore longed I for their stay,but Fortune stayed * Longings and turned my hope to mere despair.

Return to us (O love!) by Allah,deign! * Enow of tears have flowed for absence-bane.'