3
The garment of fair fortune shine on thee, dwelling, still, Whilst on the garden-branches the song-birds pipe and trill!
May fragrant odours harbour in every part of thee And lovers in thy precincts their hearts’ desire fulfil!
In glory and in pleasance still may thy dwellers live, What while a wandering planet shines out on heaven’s hill!
Then he looked at the third, on which he found these verses written in ultramarine:
Still mayst thou last in glory and prosper, house of mine, As long as night shall darken, as long as lights shall shine!
All at thy gates who enter good luck embrace and good From thee betide each comer in one unbroken line!
And on the fourth was painted in yellow characters the following verse:
This garden and this lake, a pleasant sitting-place, These, by the clement Lord, are all I ask of grace.
Moreover, in that garden were birds of all kinds, turtle and cushat and culver and nightingale, each carolling his several song, and amongst them the lady, swaying gracefully to and fro and ravishing all who saw her with her beauty and grace and symmetry. ‘O man,’ said she to Mesrour, ‘what brings thee into a house other than thy house and wherefore comest thou in unto women other than thy women, without leave of their owner?’ ‘O my lady,’ answered he, ‘I saw this garden, and the goodliness of its verdure pleased me and the fragrance of its flowers and the singing of its birds; so I entered, thinking to gaze on it awhile and go my way.’ ‘With all my heart,’ said she. Mesrour was amazed at the sweetness of her speech and the amorous languor of her glances and the elegance of her shape, and transported by her beauty and grace and the pleasantness of the garden and the birds. So he recited the following verses:
