261
absent; yet is my sorrow greater than ever and my grief and affliction were but increased by my visit to the Islands of Camphor and the Castle of Crystal. The islands in question are seven in number and are ruled by a king, Shehriman by name, who hath a daughter called Dunya; and I was told that it was she who wrought these gazelles and that this thou seest was of her broidery. When I knew this, yearning redoubled on me and I became a prey to consuming languor and drowned in the sea of melancholy thought; and I wept over myself, for that I was become even as a woman, without manly gear like other men, and that there was no recourse for me. From the day of my departure from the Camphor Islands, I have been tearful-eyed and sorrowful-hearted, and I know not whether it will be given me to return to my native land and die by my mother or not, for I am weary of the world.’
When the young merchant had made an end of telling his story, he wept and groaned and complained and gazed upon the figures wrought on the piece of linen, whilst the tears streamed down his cheeks and he repeated the following verses:
‘Needs must thy sorrow have an end,’ quoth many an one ‘and cease.’ And I, ‘Needs must your chiding end and let me be at peace.’
‘After awhile,’ say they; and I, ‘Who will ensure me life, O fools, until the hands of grief their grip of me release?’
And also these:
God knows that, since my severance from thee, full sore I’ve wept, So sore that needs my eyes must run for very tears in debt!
‘Have patience,’ quoth my censurers, ‘and thou shalt win them yet.’ And I, ‘O thou that blamest me, whence should I patience get?’
Then said he, ‘This, O prince, is my story: hast thou ever heard a stranger one?’ Night cxxix.Taj el Mulouk marvelled greatly at the young merchant’s tale and said to him, ‘By Allah, thou hast suffered that which never befell any but
