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down in a swoon. Night dccclvi.When he came to himself, he recited the following verses:
I snuff the scent of balm from them, wherewith the air is fraught And fare away, with heart fulfilled of passion, love-distraught.
A miserable slave of love, my longings with the sight Of dwellings, void of all their charms, to salve in vain I’ve sought.
It doth but sicken me for woe and severance and desire And all the past-time with my friends recalleth to my thought.
When he had made an end of these verses, he heard a raven croak beside the house and wept, saying, ‘Glory be to God! The raven croaks not save over a ruined house.’ Then he sighed and groaned and recited the following verses:
What aileth the raven to croon o’er the house of my love? As I hear, The fires in my bosom rage high; their burning my entrails doth sear,
For regret for the days of their love, bygone; my heart wanders, for woe, In the mountains of misery lost, distracted with passion and fear.
I die of love-longing; the flames of desire in my liver still rage, And letters I write, which, alas! I have none to convey to my dear.
Alas for my body worn waste and my sorrow! My loved one is gone. Will they ever, I wonder, return, her nights, with their solace and cheer?
O breeze of the East, in the dawn if thou visit the camp of her tribe, Salute her, I prithee, for me, and stay by her stead thy career.
Now Zein el Mewasif had a sister, by name Nesim,[1] who was looking on him from a high place; and when she saw him in this plight, she wept and sighed and recited these verses:
Harkye! How oft, bewailing the steads, wilt come and go? Indeed, the house its builder bemoaneth, of its woe.
Gladness, ere they departed who did inhabit here, Was rife within the dwelling and suns[2] in it did glow.
Where are the full moons[2] vanished, that shone so bright? The shifts Of fate their lucent beauties have blotted out, I trow
