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When she is wroth, I trow, thou seest folk slain and sped, And when she’s pleased, their souls return unto their stead.
Eyes hath she, whence proceed bewitching looks, wherewith She slayeth whom she will and raiseth from the dead.
All creatures with her glance she captivates; it seems As if all folk to her were servants, born and bred.
‘Welcome and fair welcome to thee, O Cout el Culoub!’ said Zubeideh. ‘Sit and divert us with thine accomplishments and the goodliness of thy fashion.’ ‘I hear and obey,’ answered the damsel and putting out her hand, took the tambourine, whereof one of its praisers speaks in the following verses:
O thou o’ the tabret, my heart for longing flies And whilst thou smitest, aloud for passion cries.
Blame not, my fairest, a wounded heart, a wight Who for thine answer to his petition sighs.
So say,—or weighty or light,—a word and sing Whate’er thou pleasest: thou charmest anywise.
Be kind; discover thy face, my love; arise And dance and gambol and please all ears and eyes.
Then she smote the tambourine briskly and sang thereto, that she arrested the birds in the air and the place danced with them; after which she laid down the tambourine and took the flageolet, whereof it is said:
Eyes hath she and the pupils thereunto that belong Are governed by the fingers to undiscordant song.
And as the poet also says:
When it bringeth with fluting the songs to the goal, The time, for sheer gladness, yields solace of soul.
Then she laid down the flageolet, after she had charmed therewith all who were present, and took up the lute, whereof saith the poet:
How many a tender branch a lute for singing-girl becomes, Whereto the hearts of erudite and generous are fain!
She sweeps it with her finger-tips, of her vivacity Tormenting it, what while she binds it fast with many a chain.
