107
‘O Vizier, thine advice is the cause of all this that hath befallen between me and my son. What doth thou counsel me to do now?’ ‘O King,’ answered he, ‘leave thy son in prison for the space of fifteen days; then send for him and command him to marry, Night clxxv.and he will not again gainsay thee.’ The King accepted the Vizier’s counsel and lay down to sleep, troubled at heart concerning Kemerezzeman, for he loved him very dearly, having no other child, and it was his wont not to sleep, save with his arm about his son’s neck. So he passed the night in trouble and unease, tossing from side to side, as he were laid on coals of tamarisk-wood; for he was overcome with inquietude and sleep visited him not all that night; but his eyes ran over with tears and he repeated the following verses:
The night, whilst the slanderers sleep, is tedious unto me; Suffice thee a heart that aches for parting’s agony!
I cry, whilst my night for care grows long and longer aye, “O light of the morning, say, is there no returning for thee?”
And these also:
When the Pleïads I saw leave to shine in their stead And over the pole-star a lethargy shed
And the maids of the Bier[1] in black raiment unveiled, I knew that the lamp of the morning was dead.
To return to Kemerezzeman. When the night came on, the eunuch set the lantern before him and lighting a candle, placed it in the candlestick; then brought him food. The prince ate a little and reproached himself for his ill-behaviour to his father, saying to himself, ‘O my soul, knowst thou not that a son of Adam is the hostage of his tongue and that a man’s tongue is what casts him into perils?’ Then his eyes ran over with tears and he bewailed that which he had done, from an anguished heart and an aching bosom, repenting him with an exceeding
- ↑ Three stars so called in the Great Bear.
