Brought the Courier glad news of our absentees,[[433]] ✿ To please us through those who had wrought us unease:
Cried I, “My life ransom thee, messenger man, ✿ Thou hast kept thy faith and thy boons are these.”
An the nightlets of union in you we joyed ✿ When fared you naught would our grief appease;
You sware that folk would to folk be true, ✿ And you kept your oaths as good faith decrees.
To you made I oath true lover am I ✿ Heaven guard me when sworn from all perjuries:
I fared to meet you and loud I cried, ✿ “Aha, fair welcome when come you please!”
And I joyed to meet you and when you came, ✿ Deckt all the dwelling with tapestries,
And death in your absence to us was dight, ✿ But your presence bringeth us life and light.
When she had made an end of her verse, Al-Abbas bade the third damsel (who came from Samarkand of Ajam-land and whose name was Rummánah) sing, and she answered, “To hear is to obey.” Then she took the zither and crying out from the midst of her head, recited and sang these couplets:[[434]]—
My watering mouth declares thy myrtle-cheek my food to be ✿ And cull my lips thy side-face rose, who lily art to me!