第98章(1 / 3)

I moan to Allah what for Love I dree'd * My wasted body and my forces spent.'

Then,despairing of her,they took counsel together and with one mind agreed to fashion her image and set it up with them,and applied themselves to this till there came to them the Destroyer of delights and Severer of societies.Meanwhile,Zayn al-Mawasif fared on,without ceasing,to find her lover Masrur,till she reached her own house.She opened the doors,and entered;then she sent to her sister Nasim,who rejoiced with exceeding joy at the news of her return and brought her the furniture and precious stuffs left in her charge.So she furnished the house and dressed it,hanging the curtains over the doors and burning aloes-wood and musk and ambergris and other essences till the whole place recked with the most delightful perfumes: after which the Adornment of Qualities donned her finest dress and decorations and sat talking with her maids,whom she had left behind when journeying,and related to them all that had befallen her first and last.Then she turned to Hubub and giving her dirhams,bade her fetch them something to eat.So she brought meat and drink and when they had made an end of eating and drinking,[372]Zayn al-Mawasif bade Hubub go and see where Masrur was and how it fared with him.Now he knew not of her return;but abode with concern overcast and sorrow might not be overpast;--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty-third Night; She said,It hath reached me,O auspicious King,that when Zayn al-Mawasif entered her house she was met by her sister Nasim who brought her the furniture and stuffs wherewith she furnished the place;and then she donned her finest dress.But Masrur knew naught of her return and abode with concern overcast and sorrow might not be overpast;no peace prevailed with him nor was patience possible to him.Whenas pine and passion,desire and distraction waxed on him,he would solace himself by reciting verse and go to the house and set him its walls to buss.It chanced that he went out that day to the place where he had parted from his mistress and repeated this rare song;'My wrongs hide I,withal they show to sight;* And now mine eyes from sleep to wake are dight.