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to myself, ‘Is it not enough that he should come in to me, without my leave, and importune me thus, but he must call me by my name, as though he knew not the right way to address me?’ Quoth he, ‘If thou wilt sing again, we will requite thee.’ I swallowed my annoyance and took the lute and sang again, taking pains with what I sang and rising thereto altogether, because of his saying, ‘We will requite thee.’ Night dclxxxviii.He was delighted and said, ‘Well done, O my lord!’ Then said he, ‘Dost thou give me leave to sing?’ ‘As thou wilt,’ answered I, deeming him weak of wit, in that he should think to sing before me, after that which he had heard from me. So he took the lute and swept the strings, and by Allah, meseemed they spoke in the Arabic tongue, with a sweet and liquid and murmurous voice; then he began and sang the following verses:
A heart that is cankered with grief I have: who will sell me therefor A heart that of cankers is whole, unwounded of ulcer or sore?
But no, not a soul will consent to barter a heart against mine; For whoso should buy were condemned to sickness and woe evermore.
He’d groan with the groaning of him who’s wounded and choking with wine, For the longing that lives in my heart and gnaws at its innermost core.
And by Allah, meseemed the doors and the walls and all that was in the house answered and sang with him, for the beauty of his voice, so that methought my very limbs and clothes answered him, and I abode amazed and unable to speak or move, for the trouble of my heart. Then he sang these verses:
Hark ye, O doves of Liwa,[1] come back unto your nest: With longing for your voices my bosom is opprest.
Back to the copse they winged it and me well-nigh did slay; Well-nigh to them my secrets I had made manifest.
- ↑ El Liwa, a beautiful valley of Arabia frequently referred to by the poets.
