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There likewise were plums and cherries and grapes, that heal the sick of [all] diseases and do away giddiness and bile from the head; and figs on the branches, parcel red and green, amazing sight and sense, even as saith the poet:
’Tis as the fig, whose whiteness, with mingling green bedight, Amongst the tree-leaves fruited, appeareth to the sight,
Where Greeks[1] on palace-turrets that keep the ward: the shades Close o’er them and in darkness they watch the livelong night.
And saith another and saith well:
Hail to the fig! It comes to us On dishes in fair order laid,
As ’twere a table-cloth,[2] drawn up Into a bag, without string’s aid.
And saith a third alike well:
Give me the fig, with beauty that’s clad and good to eat: Its outward with its inward accordeth, as is meet.
It fruiteth and thou pluckst it, and when thou eatst thereof, As camomiles its smell is, its taste as sugar sweet;
And when into its platters ’tis poured, it seemeth balls Made of green silk and fashioned in goodliness complete.
And how excellent is the saying of one of them!
Quoth they (and I on the fig, forsooth, was wont my fill to feed And made no count of the other fruits to which they gave the meed,)
‘Why dost thou love the fig?’ And I, ‘The fig hath its folk,’ replied; ‘And the sycamore fruit hath folk and folk thereto, in very deed.’[3]
And still goodlier that of another:
The fig to me is pleasing above all fruits that be, Whenas it’s ripe and dangles upon its shining tree.
What while the clouds are raining, for fear of God Most High, Full many a tear it sheddeth, as ’twere a devotee.
- ↑ i.e. Greeks of the Lower Empire (Roum), much sought after for slaves by the Arab conquerors of Syria, etc., on account of their beauty.
- ↑ Sufreh. See note, Vol. IV. p. 150.
- ↑ Double-entendre. See notes, Vol. III. p. 179 and Vol. VI. p. 242.
