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Night clxxxi.They carried her into the saloon and laying her beside Kemerezzeman, uncovered both their faces, and behold, they were the likest of all folk, one to the other, as they were twins or an only brother and sister; and indeed they were a temptation to the pious, even as says of them the poet El Mubin:
Be not thy love, O heart, to one alone confined, Lest, for that one, amaze and doting thee enwind;
But love thou rather all the fair, and thou shalt find, If one contrarious prove, another will be kind.
And quoth another:
Two fair ones lying on the earth I did of late espy; Two that I needs must love, although they lay upon mine eye.
Dehnesh and Maimouneh gazed on them awhile, and the former said, ‘By Allah, O my lady, it is good! My mistress is assuredly the fairer.’ ‘Not so,’ answered she, ‘my beloved is the fairer. Out on thee, O Dehnesh! Thou art blind of eye and heart and distinguishest not between good and bad.[1] Wilt thou hide the truth? Dost thou not see his beauty and grace and symmetry? Out on thee, hear what I purpose to say in praise of my beloved, and do thou the like for her thou lovest, an thou be a true lover.’ Then she kissed Kemerezzeman again and again between the eyes and repeated the following ode:
Ah me, what ails the censurer that he at thee should flite? How shall I be consoled for thee, and thou a sapling slight?
Thou of the black and languorous eye, that casteth far and wide Charms, whose sheer witchery compels to passion’s utmost height,
Whose looks, with Turkish languor fraught, work havoc in the breast, Leaving such wounds as ne’er were made of falchion in the fight,
Thou layst on me a heavy load of passion and desire, On me that am too weak to bear a shift upon me dight.
My love for thee, as well thou know’st, my very nature is, And that for others which I feign dissembling but and sleight.
- ↑ Lit. lean and fat.
