For one strange of lineage whose kin repel * Thou shalt wake ill-famed,of friends dispossest:
I'm a Zealot's child and affright the folk: * Would my life were ended and I at rest!'
Then Masrur answered her improvisation and began to say these lines;'To grief leave a heart that to love ne'er ceased;* Nor blame;for your blame ever love increased:
You misrule my vitals in tyrant-guise;* Morn and Eve I wend not or West or East;
Love's law forbids me to do me die;* They say Love's victim is ne'er released:
Well-away! Could I find in Love's Court a judge * I'd'plain and win to my rights at least.'
They ceased not from mutual chiding till morning morrowed,when Zayn al-Mawasif said,'O Masrur'tis time for thee to depart;lest one of the folk see thee and foul befal us twain.'So he arose and accompanied by nurse Hubub fared on,till they came to his lodging,where he talked with her and said to her,'All thou seekest of me is ready for thee,so but thou wilt bring me to enjoy her.'Hubub replied,'Hearten thy heart;'whereupon he rose and gave her an hundred dinars,saying'O Hubub,I have by me a dress worth an hundred gold pieces.'Answered she,'O Masrur;make haste with the trinkets and other things promised her,ere she change her mind,for we may not take her,save with wile and guile,and she loveth the saying of verse.'Quoth he,'Hearing and obeying,'and bringing her the musk and ambergris and lign-aloes and rosewater,returned with her to Zayn al-Mawasif and saluted her.She returned his salam with the sweetest speech;and he was dazed by her beauty and improvised these lines;'O thou sheeniest Sun who in night dost shine! * O who stole my soul with those large black eyne!