[337]. These six distichs are in Night xiii. I borrow Torrens (p. 125) to show his peculiar treatment of spinning out 12 lines to 38.
[338]. Arab. “Musámirah” = chatting at night. Easterns are inordinately fond of the practice and the wild Arabs often sit up till dawn, talking over the affairs of the tribe, indeed a Shaykh is expected to do so. “Early to bed and early to rise” is a civilised not a savage or a barbarous saying. Samír is a companion in night talk; Rafík of the road; Rahíb in riding horse or camel; Ká’id in sitting; Sharíb and Rafís at drink, and Nadím at table: Ahíd is an ally, and Sharík a partner—all on the model of “Fa’íl.”
[339]. In both lover and beloved the excess of love gave them this clairvoyance.
[340]. The prayer will be granted for the excess (not the purity) of her love.
[341]. This wailing over the Past is one of the common-places of Badawi poetry. The traveller cannot fail, I repeat, to notice the chronic melancholy of peoples dwelling under the brightest skies.
[342]. Moons = Budúr: in Paradise as a martyr.
[343]. i.e. to intercede for me in Heaven; as if the young woman were the Prophet.
[344]. The comparison is admirable as the two letters are thus written
or لا. It occurs in Al-Hariri (Ass. of Ramlah)