If I address Thee fain I cry aloud; ✿ Or, if I’m mute, my signs for speech I show.
O Thou to whom no second be conjoined! ✿ A wretched lover seeks Thee in his woe.
I have a hope my thoughts as true confirm; ✿ And heart that fainteth as right well canst trow.
To lavish life is hardest thing that be, ✿ Yet easy an Thou bid me life forego;
But, an it be Thy will to save from stowre, ✿ Thou, O my Hope, to work this work hast power!
Then the man cast himself down from the belvedere; but Allah sent an angel who bore him up on his wings and brought him down to the ground, whole and without hurt or harm. Now when he found himself safe on the ground, he thanked and praised Allah (to whom belong Majesty and Might!) for His merciful protection of his person and his chastity; and he went straight to his wife who had long expected him, and he empty-handed. Then seeing him, she asked him why he had tarried and what was come of that he had taken with him and why he returned empty-handed; whereupon he told her of the temptation which had befallen him, and she said, “Alhamdolillah—praised be God—for delivering thee from seduction and intervening between thee and such calamity!” Then she added, “O man, the neighbours use to see us light our oven every night; and, if they see us fireless this night, they will know that we are destitute. Now it behoveth in gratitude to Allah, that we hide our destitution and conjoin the fast of this night to that of the past and continue it for the sake of Allah Almighty.” So she rose and, filling the oven with wood, lighted it, to baffle the curiosity of her women-neighbours, reciting these couplets:—
Now I indeed will hide desire and all repine; ✿ And light up this my fire that neighbours see no sign:
Accept I what befalls by order of my Lord; ✿ Haply He too accept this humble act of mine.
——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Seventieth Night,