[426]. These lines occur in vol. i. [218]: I quote Torrens for variety.
[427]. So we speak of a “female screw.” The allusion is to the dove-tailing of the pieces. This personification of the lute has occurred before: but I solicit the reader’s attention to it; it has a fulness of Oriental flavour all its own.
[428]. I again solicit the reader’s attention to the simplicity, the pathos and the beauty of this personification of the lute.
[429]. “They” for she.
[430]. The Arabs very justly make the “’Andalíb” = nightingale, masculine.
[431]. Anwár = lights or flowers: See Night dccclxv. supra p. [270].
[432]. These couplets have occurred in vol. i. [168]: so I quote Mr. Payne.
[433]. i.e. You may have his soul but leave me his body: company with him in the next world and let me have him in this.
[434]. Alluding to the Koranic (cxiii. 1.), “I take refuge with the Lord of the Daybreak from the mischief of that which He hath created, etc.” This is shown by the first line wherein occurs the Koranic word “Ghásik” (cxiii. 3) which may mean the first darkness when it overspreadeth or the moon when it is eclipsed.
[435]. “Malak” = level ground; also tract on the Nile sea. Lane M.E. ii. 417, and Burckhardt Nubia 482.