Meet not thy lover save at night for fear of slander ✿ The Sun’s a tittle-tattler and the Moon’s a pander.
And a fifth:—
I love not white girls blown with fat who puff and pant; ✿ The maid for me is young brunette embonpoint-scant.
I’d rather ride a colt that’s dark upon the day ✿ Of race, and set my friends upon the elephant.
And a sixth:—
My lover came to me one night, ✿ And clipt we both with fond embrace;
And lay together till we saw ✿ The morning come with swiftest pace.
Now I pray Allah and my Lord ✿ To reunite us of His grace;
And make night last me long as he ✿ Lies in the arms that tightly lace.
Were I to set forth all the praises of blackness, my tale would be tedious; but little and enough is better than too much of unfilling stuff. As for thee, O blonde, thy colour is that of leprosy and thine embrace is suffocation,[[367]] and it is of report that hoar-frost and icy cold[[368]] are in Gehenna for the torment of the wicked. Again, of things black and excellent is ink, wherewith is written Allah’s word; and were it not for black ambergris and black musk, there would be no perfumes to carry to Kings. How many glories I may not mention dwell in blackness, and how well saith the poet:—