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for, every night, when she had made an end of the girdle, she would work awhile at the kerchief. When it was finished, she gave it to Noureddin, who put it on his shoulders and went out to walk in the market, whilst all the merchants and people and notables of the town crowded about him, to gaze on his beauty and that of the kerchief.
One night, after this, he awoke from sleep and found Meryem weeping passing sore and reciting the following verses:
The severance of friends draws near and nearer aye: Alas for severance! Alas, the parting day!
My heart is rent in twain, and O my grief for those The nights of our delight that now are past away!
Needs must the envier look on us with evil eye And come to his desire of that he doth essay;
For nought can irk us more than envy and the eyes Of backbiters and spies, nor work us more dismay.
‘O my lady Meryem,’ said he, ‘what ails thee to weep?’ ‘I weep for the anguish of parting,’ answered she; ‘for my heart forebodes me thereof.’ Quoth he, ‘O lady of fair ones, and who shall part us, seeing that I love and tender thee above all creatures?’ And she replied, ‘And I love thee twice as well as thou me; but [blind] confidence in fortune still causes folk fall into affliction, and right well saith the poet:
Thou thoughtest well of Fate, whilst yet the days for thee were fair, And fearedst not the unknown ills that destiny might bring.
The nights were calm and safe for thee; thou wast deceived by them; For in the peace of night betides full many a troublous thing.
Lo, in the skies are many stars, no one can tell their tale; But to the sun and moon alone eclipse brings darkening.
The earth bears many a pleasant herb and many a plant and tree; But none is stoned save only that to which the fair fruits cling.
Seest not the sea and how the waifs float up upon the foam? But in its deepest depths of blue the pearls have sojourning.
