Here! Here! by Allah, here! ✿ Cups of the sweet, the dear!
Fill me a brimming bowl ✿ The Fount o' Life I speer
Then the Porter stood up before the mistress of the house and said, "O lady, I am thy slave, thy Mameluke, thy white thrall, thy very bondsman;" and he began reciting:—
A slave of slaves there standeth at thy door ✿ Lauding thy generous boons and gifts galore:
Beauty! may he come in awhile to 'joy ✿ Thy charms? for Love and I part nevermore!
She said to him, "Drink; and health and happiness attend thy drink." So he took the cup and kissed her hand and recited these lines in sing-song:—
I gave her brave old wine that like her cheeks ✿ Blushed red or flame from furnace flaring up:
She bussed the brim and said with many a smile ✿ How durst thou deal folk's cheek for folk to sup?
"Drink!" (said I) "these are tears of mine whose tinct ✿ Is heart-blood sighs have boilèd in the cup."
She answered him in the following couplet:—