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of her cheeks; then bent over her and kissed a mole on her face, whereupon she awoke and cried out, saying, ‘O Trusty One of God,[1], what is to do?’ ‘A guest who knocks at thy dwelling by night,’ replied the Khalif, ‘[hoping] that thou wilt give him hospitality till the dawn.’ ‘It is well,’ answered she; ‘I will grace the guest with my hearing and my sight.’
So she brought the wine and they drank it together; after which she took the lute and tuning it, preluded in one-and-twenty modes, then returning to the first, struck a lively measure and sang the following verses:
The tongue of passion in my heart bespeaks thee for my soul, Telling I love thee with a love that nothing can control.
I have an eye, that testifies unto my sore disease, And eke a heart with parting wrung, a-throb for love and dole.
Indeed, I cannot hide the love that frets my life away; Longing increases still on me, my tears for ever roll.
Ah me, before the love of thee, I knew not what love was; But God’s decree must have its course on every living soul.
Night cccxxxix.Then said she, ‘O Commander of the Faithful, I am a wronged woman.’ ‘How so?’ quoth he, ‘and who hath wronged thee?’ She answered, ‘Thy son bought me awhile ago, for ten thousand dirhems, meaning to give me to thee; but the daughter of thine uncle[2] sent him the price aforesaid and bade him shut me up from thee in this chamber.’ Whereupon, ‘Ask a boon of me,’ said the Khalif; and she, ‘I ask thee to lie to-morrow night with me.’ ‘If it be the will of God,’ replied the Khalif, and leaving her, went away.
Next morning, he repaired to his sitting-room and called for Abou Nuwas, but found him not and sent his chamberlain to seek for him. The chamberlain found him in pawn, in a tavern, for a score of a thousand dirhems, that he had spent on a certain boy, and ques-
