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I weep for one whose face is decked by Beauty’s self; there’s none, Arab or foreigner, to match with her, in hill or plain.
The lore of Locman[1] hath my love and Mary’s chastity, with Joseph’s loveliness to boot and David’s songful vein;
Whilst Jacob’s grief to me belongs and Jonah’s dreariment, Ay, and Job’s torment and despite and Adam’s plight of bane.
Slay ye her not, although I die for love of her, but ask, How came it lawful unto her to shed my blood in vain.
When Kemerezzeman heard these verses, they brought refreshment and healing to his heart, and he sighed and turning his tongue in his mouth, said to the King, ‘O my father, let this young man come and sit by my side.’ Night cxcviii.The King, hearing these words from his son, rejoiced exceedingly, though at the first he had been wroth with Merzewan and thought in himself to have stricken off his head: but when he heard Kemerezzeman speak, his anger left him and he arose and drawing Merzewan to him, made him sit down by his son and said to him, ‘Praised be God for thy safety!’ ‘May God bless thee,’ answered Merzewan, ‘and preserve thy son to thee!’ Then said the King, ‘From what country comest thou?’ ‘From the Islands of the Inland Sea,’ replied he, ‘the kingdom of King Ghaïour, lord of the Islands and the seas and the Seven Palaces.’ Quoth the King, ‘Maybe thy coming shall be blessed to my son and God vouchsafe to heal him of his malady.’ ‘God willing,’ rejoined Merzewan, ‘all shall yet be well.’ Then turning to Kemerezzeman, he said to him in his ear, unheard of the King and his court, ‘Be of good cheer, O my lord, and take heart and courage. As for her for whose sake thou art thus, ask not of her condition on thine account. Thou keptest thy secret and fellest sick, but she discovered hers and they said she was mad; and she is now in prison, with an iron chain about her neck, in most piteous case; but, God willing, the healing of
- ↑ The well-known semi-legendary sage and fabulist.
