Without a fault committed and without a sin to show; * Or heart
that leans to other wight or would thy love forego:
Or treason to our plighted troth or causing thee a throe?' * And
if he smile then say ye twain in accents soft and slow,
'An thou to him a meeting grant 'twould be the kindest
way!
For he is gone distraught for thee, as well indeed, he might *
His eyes are wakeful and he weeps and wails the livelong
night :'
If seem he satisfied by this why then 'tis well and right, * But
if he show an angry face and treat ye with despite,
Trick him and 'Naught we know of him!' I beg you both
to say.'
Quoth I to myself, 'Verily, if the owner of this voice be fair, she conjoineth beauty of person and eloquence and sweetness of voice.' Then I drew near the door, and began raising the curtain little by little, when lo! I beheld a damsel, white as a full moon when it mooneth on its fourteenth night, with joined eyebrows twain and languorous lids of eyne, breasts like pomegranates twin and dainty, lips like double carnelian, a mouth as it were the seal-of Solomon, and teeth ranged in a line that played with the reason of proser and rhymer, even as saith the poet,
'O pearly mouth of friend, who set those pretty pearls in line, *
And filled thee full of whitest chamomile and reddest wine?
Who lent the morning-glory in thy smile to shimmer and shine *
Who with that ruby-padlock dared thy lips to seal-and sign!
Who looks on thee at early morn with stress of joy and bliss *
Goes mad for aye, what then of him who wins a kiss of
thine?'[FN#330]
And as saith another,
'O pearl-set mouth of friend * Pity poor Ruby's cheek
Boast not o'er one who owns * Thee, union and unique.'
In brief she comprised all varieties of loveliness and was a seduction to men and women, nor could the gazer satisfy himself with the sight of her charms; for she was as the poet hath said of her,
'When comes she, slays she; and when back he turns, * She makes
all men regard with loving eyes:
A very sun! a very moon! but still * Prom hurt and harmful ills
her nature flies.
Opes Eden's garden when she shows herself, * And full moon see we
o'er her necklace rise.'
How as I was looking at her through an opening of the curtain, behold, she turned; and, seeing me standing at the door, said to her handmaid, 'See who is at the door.' So the slave-girl came up to me and said, 'O Shaykh, hast thou no shame, or do impudent airs suit hoary hairs?' Quoth I, 'O my mistress, I confess to the hoary hairs, but as for impudent airs, I think not to be guilty of unmannerliness.' Then the mistress broke in, 'And what can be more unmannerly than to intrude thyself upon a house other than thy house and gaze on a Harim other than thy Harim?' I pleaded, 'O my lady, I have an excuse;' and when she asked, 'And what is thine excuse?' I answered, 'I am a stranger and so thirsty that I am well nigh dead of thirst.' She rejoined, 'We accept thine excuse,' —And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When It was the Three Hundred and Twenty-ninth Night,