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that cost me a thousand sighs. My heart was captivated with her love and I could not take my eyes off her face; and I repeated the following verses:
Say to the fairest fair, her in the dove-coloured veil, “Death would be welcome to me, to save me from thy bale:
Grant me thy favours, I pray! so I may live perchance. Lo! I stretch forth my palm: let not thy bounties fail.”
When she heard this, she answered me by repeating the following verses:
Power to forget thee, for desire, fails even unto me: My heart and all my soul will love none other after thee.
If my eyes ever look on aught except thy loveliness, May union after severance ne’er brighten them with glee!
I’ve sworn an oath by my right hand ne’er to forget thy grace. My sad heart pineth for thy love and never may win free.
Passion hath given me to drink a brimming cup of love; Would it had given the self-same draught to drink, dear heart, to thee!
If thou shouldst ask me what I’d crave most earnestly of God, “The Almighty’s favour first, then thine,” I’d say, “my prayer shall be.”
Then she said to me, ‘O youth, hast thou any handsome stuffs?’ ‘O my lady,’ answered I, ‘thy slave is poor: but wait till the merchants open their shops, and I will get thee what thou wilt.’ Then we sat talking, she and I, whilst I was drowned in the sea of her love and dazed with passion for her, till the merchants opened their shops, when I rose and fetched her all she sought, to the value of five thousand dirhems. She gave the stuffs to the slave and leaving the bazaar, mounted the mule and rode away, without telling me whence she came, and I was ashamed to ask her. So I became answerable to the merchants for the price of the goods and thus took on myself a debt of five thousand dirhems. Then I went home, drunken with love of her, and they set the evening-meal before me. I ate a mouthful and lay down to rest, musing upon her beauty and grace: but sleep came not to me. A week
