Would Heaven I wot shall I sight delight, ✿ And shall win my wish and my friend shall know!
Shall be folded up nights that doomed us part ✿ And I be healed of what harms my heart?
——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Eight Hundred and Forty-ninth Night,
She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that while Masrur, transported by passion and love-longing, was repeating his couplets in sing-song tone Hubub knocked at his door; so he rose and opened to her, and she entered and gave him the letter. He read it and said to her, “O Hubub, what is behind thee of thy lady’s news[[324]]?” She answered, “O my lord, verily, in this letter is that dispenseth me from reply, for thou art of those who readily descry!” Thereat he rejoiced with joy exceeding and repeated these two couplets:—
Came the writ whose contents a new joy revealed, ✿ Which in vitals mine I would keep ensealed:
And my longings grew when I kissed that writ, ✿ As were pearl of passion therein concealed.
Then he wrote a letter answering hers and gave it to Hubub, who wrote it and returned with it to her mistress and forthright fell to extolling his charms to her and expiating on his good gifts and generosity; for she was become a helper to him, to bring about his union with her lady. Quoth Zayn al-Mawasif, “O Hubub, indeed he tarrieth to come to us;” and quoth Hubub, “He will certainly come soon.” Hardly had she made an end of speaking when behold, he knocked at the door, and she opened to him and brought him in to her mistress, who saluted him with the salam[[325]] and welcomed him and seated him by her side. Then she said to Hubub, “Bring me a suit of brocade;” so she brought a robe broidered with gold and Zayn al-Mawasif threw it over him, whilst she herself donned one of the richest dresses and crowned her head with a net of pearls of the freshest water. About this she bound a fillet of brocade, purfled with pearls, jacinths and other jewels, from beneath which she let down two tresses[[326]] each looped with a pendant of ruby, charactered with glittering gold, and she loosed her hair, as it were the sombrest night; and lastly she incensed herself with aloes-wood and scented herself with musk and ambergris, and Hubub said to her, “Allah save thee from the evil eye!” Then she began to walk, swaying from side to side with gracefullest gait, whilst Hubub who excelled in verse-making, recited in her honour these couplets:—
Shamed is the bough of Bán by pace of her; ✿ And harmed are lovers by the gaze of her.
A moon she rose from murks, the hair of her, ✿ A sun from locks the brow encase of her: