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O dove of this our dwelling-place, our parting greeting bear From lover to belovéd one and tell him I shall ne’er
Cease to regret the past delight and all its ravishments And all the sweetness of the days for us whilom that were;
And bid him also never leave to be the slave of love, Fulfilled of grief for our content that’s past and gone for e’er.
Indeed, we passed our time awhile in solace and in cheer And love-delight both night and day we did enjoy whilere;
But, when we woke, the raven gave us morrow[1] with his croak And did against us twain the doom of severance declare.
Now must we journey far away and leave the dwellings void: Would we might ne’er depart the lands nor breathe a foreign air!
Then she went to the second door and wrote thereon the following verses:
O thou to this door that comest, by Allah, watch for the grace Of my loved one midmost the darkness and tell him I weep apace,
When I think of the time of union with him, and the tears that come Of my weeping for him cease never to ripple adown my face;
And say to him, ‘If no patience for what is fallen on me Thou findest, I rede thee sprinkle thy head with the dust of the place
And travel the lands to Eastward and Westward and look thou live In patience, for God hath ordered and yet will order the case.’
Then she went to the third door and wept sore and wrote thereon these verses:
Harkye, Mesrour, an if thou come to this her dwelling, see Thou read upon the doors the lines that she hath writ for thee.
How oft thou’st tasted of the sweet and bitter of the nights! Forget thou not the pact of love, if thou a true man be.
By Allah, do not thou forget her neighbourhood, Mesrour; For in thyself her solace all and gladness leaveth she!
Weep for the days of love-delight and all their sweets and all The goodly nights that with their shade encurtained thee and me;
And to the farthest of the lands, for my sake, journey thou; Search all its deserts after us and plunge into its sea.
- ↑ See note, Vol. VII. p. 267.
