345
were the moon at its full, and the old woman said to him, ‘See, O youth, who is present before thee! It is the King’s daughter of the age, Heyat en Nufous: bethink thee of her rank and the honour she doth thee in coming to thee and rise and stand before her, out of respect for her.’ The prince sprang to his feet forthright and his eyes met hers, whereupon they both became as they were drunken without wine. Then the love of him and desire redoubled upon the princess and she opened her arms and he his, and they embraced; but love-longing and passion overcame them and they swooned away and lay a great while without sense. The old woman, fearing scandal, carried them both into the pavilion and sitting down at the door, said to the two waiting-women, ‘Seize the occasion to take your pleasure in the gardens for the princess sleeps.’ So they returned to their diversion.
Presently, the lovers recovered from their swoon and found themselves in the pavilion, whereupon quoth the prince, ‘God on thee, O princess of fair ones, is this a dream or an illusion of sleep?’ Then they embraced and intoxicated themselves without wine, complaining each to each of the anguish of passion; and the prince recited the following verses:
The sun of the day shines out from her forehead’s lambent snow And eke from her cheeks flames forth the red of the afterglow;
And whenas athwart the veil her charms to the sight appear, The star of the skyline sets for shame and away doth go.
If lightnings flash from her teeth, in the break of her smiling lips, The veils of the dark are drawn and day through the dusk doth show
And when with her graceful shape she sways in her swimming gait, The cassia-boughs in the leaf are jealous of her, I trow.
Her sight is enough for me; I care for no other bliss; To God I commend her, the Lord of the heavens and the earth below!
The full moon borrows a part of her beauties, and eke the sun To imitate her were fain, but needs must the strife forego.
For whence should it get her shape and the flexile grace of her gait, And whence should the moon the charms of her mind and her body know?
