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not go back on his giving nor will revoke his gift.’ Then he sprang to his feet and taking a mantle, threw it over the pretended fisherman and bade him take the damsel and begone. But she looked at him and said, ‘O my lord, art thou going away without bidding me adieu? If it must be so, at least, stay whilst I bid thee farewell and make known my case.’ And she repeated the following verses:
I am filled full of longing pain and memory and dole, Till I for languor am become a body without soul.
Say not to me, beloved one, “Thou’lt grow consoled for me;” When such affliction holds the heart, what is there can console?
If that a creature in his tears could swim as in a sea, I to do this of all that breathe were surely first and sole.
O thou, the love of whom doth fill my heart and overflow, Even when wine, with water mixed, fills up the brimming bowl,
O thou for whom desire torments my body and my spright! This severance is the thing I feared was writ on fortune’s scroll.
O thou, whose love from out my heart shall nevermore depart, O son of Khacan, thou my wish, my hope unshared and whole,
On my account thou didst transgress against our lord and king And left’st thy native land for me, to seek a foreign goal.
Thou givest me unto Kerim,[1] may he for aye be praised! And may th’ Almighty for my loss my dearest lord console!
When she had finished, Noureddin answered her by repeating the following:
She bade me adieu on the day of our parting And said, whilst for anguish she wept and she sighed,
“Ah, what wilt thou do, when from me thou art severed?” “Ask that of the man who’ll survive,” I replied.
When the Khalif heard what she said in her verses, ‘Thou hast given me to Kerim,’ his interest in her redoubled and it was grievous to him to separate them; so he said to Noureddin, ‘O my lord, verily the damsel said in her verses that thou hadst transgressed against her master and him who possessed her; so tell me, against
- ↑ The name Kerim means “generous.”
