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child, and preluded in many different modes; then, returning to the first, she sang the following verses:
An they’d unto the lover incline or visit pay, From off his back the burden of longing he might lay.
A nightingale o’ the branches vies with him, as she were A lover whose beloved hath lighted far away.
Up and awake! The midnights of love-delight are clear And bright, with union’s splendour, as very break of day.
Behold, to love and joyance the lute-strings summon us And eke to-day our enviers are heedless of our play.
Seest not that unto pleasance four several things, to wit, Rose, gillyflower and myrtle and lights[1] unite alway?
And here to-day assemble four things, by favouring fate, Lover, belovéd, money and wine, to make us gay.
So seize upon thy fortune i’ the world; for its delights Pass by and but traditions and chronicles do stay.
When Noureddin heard this, he looked on her with eyes of love and could scarce contain himself for the violence of his inclination to her; and on like wise was it with her, because she looked at the company who were present of the sons of the merchants and at Noureddin and saw that he was amongst the rest as the moon among stars; for that he was sweet of speech and full of amorous grace, perfect in beauty and brightness and loveliness and accomplished in symmetry, pure of all defect, blander than the zephyr and more delicate than Tesnim,[2] as saith of him the poet:
By his cheeks’ unfading damask and his smiling teeth I swear, By the arrows that he feathers with the witchery of his air,
By his sides so soft and tender and his glances bright and keen, By the whiteness of his forehead and the blackness of his hair,
By his arched imperious eyebrows, chasing slumber from my lids With their yeas and noes that hold me ’twixt rejoicing and despair,
