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was empty and we came to the burial-place. When she saw the tomb, she wept and threw herself upon it; then pulling out a graver of steel and a light mallet, she graved the following verses, in fine characters, upon the stone at the head of the tomb:
I passed by a ruined tomb, in the midst of a garden-way, Upon whose letterless stone seven blood-red anemones lay.
“Who sleeps in this unmarked grave?” I said; and the earth, “Bend low; For a lover lies here and waits for the Resurrection Day.”
“God help thee, O victim of love,” I cried, “and bring thee to dwell In the highest of all the heavens of Paradise, I pray!
How wretched are lovers all, even in the sepulchre, When their very graves are covered with ruin and decay!
Lo, if I might, I would plant thee a garden round about And with my streaming tears the thirst of its flowers allay!”
Then she returned to the garden, weeping, and I with her, and she said to me, “By Allah, thou shalt never leave me!” “I hear and obey,” answered I. Then I devoted myself wholly to her and paid her frequent visits, and she was good and generous to me. As often as I passed the night with her, she would make much of me and ask me of the two words my cousin told my mother, and I would repeat them to her.
I abode thus a whole year, till, what with eating and drinking and dalliance and wearing change of rich raiment, I waxed stout and fat, so that I lost all thought of sorrow and anxiety and forgot my cousin Azizeh. At the end of this time, I went one day to the bath, where I refreshed myself and put on a rich suit of clothes, scented with various perfumes; then, coming out I drank a cup of wine and smelt the fragrance of my new clothes, whereupon my breast dilated, for I knew not the perfidy of fortune nor the calamities of events. When the hour of evening-prayer came, I thought to repair to my mistress; but being heated with wine, I knew not where I went, so
