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these that are present, and point him out, that I may sell thee to him.’ So she looked round the ring of merchants, examining them one by one, till her eyes rested on Ali Shar. Night cccxi.His sight cost her a thousand sighs and her heart was taken with him: for that he was passing fair of favour and more pleasant than the northern zephyr; and she said, ‘O broker, I will be sold to none but my lord there, he of the handsome face and slender shape, whom the poet describes in the following verses:
They showed thy lovely face and railed At her whom ravishment assailed.
Had they desired to keep me chaste, Thy face so fair they should have veiled.
None shall possess me but he,’ added she; ‘for his cheek is smooth and the water of his mouth sweet as Selsebil;[1] his sight is a cure for the sick and his charms confound poet and proser, even as saith one of him:
The water of his mouth is wine, and very musk The fragrance of his breath; his teeth are camphor white.
Rizwan hath put him out from paradise, for fear The black-eyed girls of heaven be tempted with the wight.
Men blame him for his pride; but the full moon’s excuse, How proud soe’er it be, finds favour in our sight.
Him of the curling locks and rose-red cheeks and enchanting glances, of whom saith the poet:
A slender loveling promised me his favours fair and free; So my heart’s restless and my eye looks still his sight to see.
His eyelids warranted me the keeping of his troth; But how shall they, that bankrupt[2] are, fulfil their warranty?
And as saith another:
“The script of whiskers on his cheek,” quoth they, “is plain to see: How canst thou then enamoured be of him, and whiskered he?”
