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Presently, in came her husband, snorting, and said to her, ‘Where is my watch?’ ‘Here it is,’ answered she. And he said, ‘Give it me.’ So she brought it to him and he exclaimed, ‘There is no power and no virtue save in God the Most High, the Supreme!’ ‘O man,’ said she, ‘there is something the matter with thee. Tell me what it is.’ ‘What shall I say?’ answered he. ‘Verily, I am bewildered by these [strange] chances!’ And he recited the following verses:
By the Compassionate, I’m dazed about my case; for lo! Troubles and griefs beset me sore, I know not whence they grow.
Patient I’ll be, so aloes’[1] self, that I against a thing Bitt’rer than ever aloes was enduréd have, may know.
Aloes itself less bitter than my patience is; I’ve borne With patience what is hotter far than coals with fire aglow.
Will o’er my case hath no command; but unto patience fair I’m bidd’n of Him who orders all that is for weal or woe.[2]
Then he said to his wife, ‘O woman, I saw, in the hands of the merchant our friend, first my knife, which I knew, for that its fashion was of my own invention, nor doth its like exist; and he told me of it a story that troubled the heart: so I came [home] and found it [here]. Again to-day I see him with the watch, whose fashion also is of my own invention, nor is there the fellow of it in Bassora, and of this also he told me a story that troubled my heart. Wherefore I am bewildered in my wit and know not what is come to me.’ Quoth she, ‘The gist of thy speech is that thou suspectedst me of being the merchant’s mistress and giving him thy goods; so thou camest to question me and make proof of my perfidy; and but that I showed thee the knife and the watch, thou hadst been certified of my faithlessness. But, O man,
- ↑ See note, Vol. I. p. 120.
- ↑ This line contains a play on the double meaning (“commandment” and “case” or “thing”) of the word amr.
