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Cleave fast to her thou lov’st and let the envious rail amain; For calumny and envy ne’er to favour love were fain.
Lo, whilst I slept, in dreams I saw thee lying by my side And from thy lips the sweetest, sure, of limpid springs did drain.
Yea, true and certain all I saw is, as I will avouch, And ’spite the envier, thereto I surely will attain.
There is no goodlier sight, indeed, for eyes to look upon, Than when one couch in its embrace enfoldeth lovers twain,
Each to the other’s bosom clasped, clad in their twinned delight, Whilst hand with hand and arm with arm about their necks enchain.
Lo, when two hearts are straitly knit in passion and desire, But on cold iron smite the folk who chide at them in vain.
Thou, that for loving censurest the votaries of love, Canst thou assain a heart diseased or heal a cankered brain?
If in thy time thou find but one to love thee and be true, I rede thee cast the world away and with that one remain.
They lay together till the morning and love for the other was stablished in the heart of each of them. On the morrow, Zumurrud took the curtain and embroidered it with coloured silks and gold and silver thread, depicting thereon all manner birds and beasts; nor is there in the world a beast but she wrought on the curtain the semblant thereof. Moreover, she made thereto a band, with figures of birds, and wrought at it eight days, till she had made an end of it, when she trimmed it and ironed it and gave it to Ali, saying, ‘Carry it to the bazaar and sell it to one of the merchants for fifty dinars; but beware lest thou sell it to a passer-by, for this would bring about a separation between us, because we have enemies who are not unmindful of us.’ ‘I hear and obey,’ answered he and repairing to the bazaar, sold the curtain to a merchant, as she bade him; after which he bought stuff for another curtain and silk and gold and silver thread as before and what they needed of food, and brought all this to her, together with the rest of the money.
They abode thus a whole year, and every eight days she made a curtain, which he sold for fifty dinars. At the end
