And also these couplets:—
O Zephyr of Najd, when from Najd thou blow, ✿ Thy breathings heap only new woe on woe!
The turtle bespake me in bloom of morn ✿ From the cassia-twig and the willow-bough
She moaned with the moaning of love-sick youth ✿ And exposed love-secret I ne’er would show:
They say lover wearies of love when near ✿ And is cured of love an afar he go:
I tried either cure which ne’er cured my love; ✿ But that nearness is better than farness I know:[[122]]
Yet,—the nearness of love shall no ’vantage prove ✿ An whoso thou lovest deny thee of love.
Then said he, “O Ibrahim, sing this song after me, and preserving the mode thereof in thy singing, teach it to thy slave-girls.” Quoth I, “Repeat it to me.” But he answered, “There needs no repetition; thou hast it by heart nor is there more to learn.” Then he suddenly vanished from my sight. At this I was amazed and running to my sword drew it and made for the door of the Harim, but found it closed and said to the women, “What have ye heard?” Quoth they, “We have heard the sweetest of singing and the goodliest.” Then I went forth amazed, to the house-door and, finding it locked, questioned the doorkeepers of the old man. They replied, “What old man? By Allah, no one hath gone in to thee this day!” So I returned pondering the matter, when, behold, there arose from one of the corners of the house, a Vox et præterea nihil, saying, “O Abu Ishak, no harm shall befal thee. ’Tis I, Abú Murrah,[[123]] who have been thy cup-companion this day, so fear nothing!” Then I mounted and rode to the palace, where I told Al-Rashid what had passed, and he said, “Repeat to me the airs thou heardest from him.” So I took the lute and played and sang them to him; for, behold, they were rooted in my heart. The Caliph was charmed with them and drank thereto, albeit he was no confirmed wine-bibber, saying, “Would he would some day pleasure us with his company, as he hath pleasured thee!”[[124]] Then he ordered me a present and I took it and went away. And men relate this story anent
[118]. Lane introduced this tale into vol. i., p. 223, notes on chapt. iii., apparently not knowing that it was in The Nights. He gives a mere abstract, omitting all the verse, and he borrowed it either from the Halbat Al-Kumayt (chapt. xiv.) or from Al-Mas’údí (chapt. cxi.). (See the French translation, vol. vi. p. [340]). I am at pains to understand why M. C. Barbier de Maynard writes “Réchid” with an accented vowel; although French delicacy made him render, by “fils de courtisane,” the expression in the text, “O biter of thy mother’s enlarged (or uncircumcised) clitoris” (Bazar).