But softly to the terrace stealing
From morn to eve, she gazed around
In hopes her Majnūn might be found.”
An oasis with its cooling streams was near the rocky fortress of the Bedawīn encampment, and here the tall palms seemed to lean against the sky, while the doves cooed in the thickets of foliage. Here the gentle Lailī came day after day, hoping that her lover might venture near. She gathered the lilies that bloomed around her feet, as she wandered through the fragrant grove, but her dark eyes were heavy with unshed tears, when she reclined beneath a mournful cypress tree and softly chanted her song of faithfulness:
“Oh, faithful friend and lover true,
Still distant from thy Lailī’s view;
Still absent, still beyond her power,
To bring thee to her fragrant bower;
Oh noble youth! still thou art mine,
And Lailī, Lailī still is thine.”