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to use such language to me and not dread the Sultan’s wrath? Indeed, I am perplexed about his case: if I order him to be put to death, it were unjust; and if I leave him, his presumption will increase.’ ‘Write him a letter,’ rejoined the old woman; ‘it may be he will desist.’ So she called for pen and ink and paper and wrote the following verses:
Again and again I chide thee, yet folly ever again Lures thee: how long, with my writing, in verse shall I bid thee refrain,
Whilst thou but growest in boldness for all forbidding? But I No grace save to keep thy secret, unto thy prayers may deign.
Conceal thy passion nor ever reveal it; for, an thou speak, I will surely show thee no mercy nor yet my wrath contain.
If to thy foolish daring thou turn thee anew, for sure, The raven of evil omen shall croak for thee death and bane;
And slaughter shall come upon thee ere long, and under the earth To seek for a place of abiding, God wot, thou shalt be fain.
Thy people, O self-deluder, thou’lt leave in mourning for thee; Ay, all their lives they shall sorrow for thee, fordone and slain.
Then she folded the letter and committed it to the old woman, who took it and returning to Taj el Mulouk, gave it to him. When he read it, he knew that the princess was hard-hearted and that he should not win to her; so he complained to the Vizier and besought his advice. Quoth he, ‘Nothing will profit thee save that thou write to her and invoke the wrath of God upon her.’ And he said to Aziz, ‘O my brother, do thou write to her in my name, according to thy knowledge.’ So Aziz took a scroll and wrote the following verses:
O Lord, by the Five Elders, deliver me, I pray, And her, for whom I suffer, in like affliction lay!
Thou knowest that I weary in raging flames of love; Whilst she I love is cruel and saith me ever nay.
How long shall I be tender to her, despite my pain? How long shall she ride roughshod o’er my weakness night and day?
In agonies I wander of never-ceasing death And find nor friend nor helper, O Lord, to be my stay.
