My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!
Who is he to whom Love e’er stinted spite ✿ And who scaped his springes and easy sleight;
Who free from Love lived in life’s delight? ✿ Where is he can boast of such liberty?
Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me:
My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!
Deign Lord such suffering wight maintain ✿ Then best Protector, protect him deign!
Establish him and his life assain ✿ And defend him from all calamity:
Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me:
My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!
And when Nur al-Din ended his say and ceased to sing his rhyming lay, the Wazir’s daughter said to herself, “By the virtue of the Messiah and the Faith which is no liar, verily this Moslem is a handsome youth! But doubtless he is a lover separated from his mistress. Would Heaven I wot an the beloved of this fair one is fair like unto him and if she pine for him as he for her! An she be seemly as he is, it behoveth him to pour forth tears and make moan of passion; but, an she be other than fair, his days are wasted in vain regrets and he is denied the taste of delights.”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.