My form is all grace and my shape is built on heavy base; Kings desire my colour which all adore, rich and poor. I am pleasant, active, handsome, elegant, soft of skin and prized for price: eke I am perfect in seemlihead and breeding and eloquence; my aspect is comely and my tongue witty; my temper is bright and my play a pretty sight. As for thee, thou art like unto a mallow growing about the Lúk Gate;[[382]] in hue sallow and streaked-yellow and made all of sulphur. Aroynt thee, O copper-worth of jaundiced sorrel, O rust of brass-pot, O face of owl in gloom, and fruit of the Hell-tree Zakkúm;[[383]] whose bedfellow, for heart-break, is buried in the tomb. And there is no good thing in thee, even as saith the poet of the like of thee:—
Yellowness, tincturing her tho’ nowise sick or sorry, ✿ Straitens my hapless heart and makes my head sore ache;
An thou repent not, Soul! I’ll punish thee with kissing[[384]] ✿ Her lower face that shall mine every grinder break!
And when she ended her lines, quoth her master, “Sit thee down, this much sufficeth!”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Three Hundred and Thirty-eighth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the yellow girl ended her recitation, quoth her master, “Sit thee down; this much sufficeth!” Then he made peace between them and clad them all in sumptuous robes of honour and hanselled them with precious jewels of land and sea. And never have I seen, O Commander of the Faithful, any when or any where, aught fairer than these six damsels fair. Now when Al-Maamun heard this story from Mohammed of Bassorah, he turned to him and said, “O Mohammed, knowest thou the abiding-place of these damsels and their master, and canst thou contrive to buy them of him for us?” He answered, “O Commander of the Faithful, indeed I have heard that their lord is wrapped up in them and cannot bear to be parted from them.” Rejoined the Caliph, “Take thee ten thousand gold pieces for each girl, that is sixty thousand for the whole purchase; and carry the coin to his house and buy them of him.” So Mohammed of Bassorah took the money and, betaking himself to the Man of Al-Yaman, acquainted him with the wish of the Prince of True Believers. He consented to part with them at that price to pleasure the Caliph; and despatched them to Al-Maamun, who assigned them an elegant abode and therein used to sit with them as cup-companions; marvelling at their beauty and loveliness, at their varied colours and at the excellence of their conversation. Thus matters stood for many a day; but, after awhile, when their former owner could no longer bear to be parted from them, he sent a letter to the Commander of the Faithful complaining to him of his own ardent love-longing for them and containing, amongst other contents, these couplets:—
Captured me six, all bright with youthful blee; ✿ Then on all six be best salams from me!
They are my hearing, seeing, very life; ✿ My meat, my drink, my joy, my jollity:
I’ll ne’er forget the favours erst so charmed ✿ Whose loss hath turned my sleep to insomny:
Alack, O longsome pining and O tears! ✿ Would I had farewelled all humanity: