She comes in a robe the colour of ultramarine, Blue as the
stainless sky, unflecked with white;
I view her with yearning eyes and she seems to me A moon of the
summer, set in a winter's night.
Then they returned to Shehrzad and displayed her in the second dress. They clad her in a dress of surpassing goodliness, and veiled her face to the eyes with her hair. Moreover, they let down her side locks and she was even as saith of her one of her describers in the following verses:
Bravo for her whose loosened locks her cheeks do overcloud! She
slays me with her cruelty, so fair she is and proud.
Quoth I, "Thou overcurtainest the morning with the night;" And
she, "Not so; it is the moon that with the dark I shroud."
Then they displayed Dinarzad in a second and a third and a fourth dress and she came forward, as she were the rising sun, and swayed coquettishly to and fro; and indeed she was even as saith the poet of her in the following verses:
A sun of beauty she appears to all who look on her, Glorious in
arch and amorous grace, with coyness beautified;
And when the sun of morning sees her visage and her smile,
O'ercome. he hasteneth his face behind the clouds to hide.
Then they displayed Shehrzad in the third dress and the fourth and the fifth, and she became as she were a willow-wand or a thirsting gazelle, goodly of grace and perfect of attributes, even as saith of her one in the following verses:
Like the full moon she shows upon a night of fortune fair,
Slender of shape and charming all with her seductive air.
She hath an eye, whose glances pierce the hearts of all mankind,
Nor can cornelian with her cheeks for ruddiness compare.
The sable torrent of her locks falls down unto her hips; Beware
the serpents of her curls, I counsel thee, beware!
Indeed her glance, her sides are soft; but none the less, alas!
Her heart is harder than the rock; there is no mercy there.
The starry arrows of her looks she darts above her veil; They hit
and never miss the mark, though from afar they fare.
Then they returned to Dinarzad and displayed her in the fifth dress and in the sixth, which was green. Indeed, she overpassed with her loveliness the fair of the four quarters of the world and outshone, with the brightness of her countenance, the full moon at its rising; for she was even as saith of her the poet in the following verses:
A damsel made for love and decked with subtle grace; Thou'dst
deem the very sun had borrowed from her face.
She came in robes of green, the likeness of the leaf That the
pomegranate's flower doth in the bud encase.
"How call'st thou this thy dress?" quoth we, and she replied A
word wherein the wise a lesson well might trace;
"Breaker of hearts," quoth she, "I call it, for therewith I've
broken many a heart among the amorous race."
Then they displayed Shehrzad in the sixth and seventh dresses and clad her in youths' apparel, whereupon she came forward, swaying coquettishly from side to side; and indeed she ravished wits and hearts and ensorcelled with her glances [all who looked on her]. She shook her sides and wagged her hips, then put her hair on the hilt of her sword and went up to King Shehriyar, who embraced her, as the hospitable man embraces the guest, and threatened her in her ear with the taking of the sword; and indeed she was even as saith of her the poet in these verses: