As soon as Yusuf had finished his improvisation and what of poetry he had produced, Al-Hayfa took seat by his side and fell to conversing with him in sweetest words with softest smiles, the while saying, "Fair welcome to thee, O wonder of beauty and lovesome in eloquence and O charming in riant semblance and lord of high degree and clear nobility: thou hast indeed illumined our place with the light of thy flower-like forehead and to our hearts joyance hast thou given and our cares afar hast thou driven and eke our breasts hast made broad; and this is a day of festival to laud, so do thou solace our souls and drain of our wine with us for thou art the bourne and end and aim of our intent." Then Al-Hayfa took a cup of chrystal, and crowning it with clear-strained wine which had been sealed with musk and saffron, she passed it to Prince Yusuf. He accepted it from her albeit his hand trembled from what befel him of her beauty and the sweetness of her poetry and her perfection; after which he began to improvise these couplets,
"O thou who drainest thy morning wine * With friends in a bower
sweet blooms enshrineÂ
Place unlike all seen by sight of man * In the lands and gardens
of best design—,
Take gladly the liquor that quivers in cup * And elevates man,
this clean Maid of the Vine:
This goblet bright that goes round the room * Nor Chosroës held
neither Nu'uman's line.
Drink amid sweet flowers and myrtle's scent * Orange-bloom and
Lily and Eglantine,
And Rose and Apple whose cheek is dight * In days that glow with
a fiery shine;
'Mid the music of strings and musician's gear * Where harp and
pipe with the lute combine;—
An I fail to find her right soon shall I * Of parting perish
foredeemed to die!"
Then Al-Hayfa responded to him in the same rhyme and measure and spake to him as follows,
"O thou who dealest in written line * Whose nature hiding shall
e'er decline;
And subdued by wine in its mainest might * Like lover drunken by
strains divine,[216] Do thou gaze on our garden of goodly gifts * And all manner
blooms that in wreaths entwine;
See the birdies warble on every bough * Make melodious music the
finest fine.
And each Pippet pipes[217] and each Curlew cries * And
Blackbird and Turtle with voice of pine;
Ring-dove and Culver, and eke Hazár, * And Katá calling on Quail
vicine;
So fill with the mere and the cups make bright * With bestest
liquor, that boon benign;—
This site and sources and scents I espy * With Rizwan's garden
compare defy."
And when Al-Hayfa had ended her improvisation and what she had spoken to him of poetry, and Yusuf had given ear to the last couplet, he was dazed and amazed and he shrieked aloud and waxed distraught for her and for the women that were beside and about her, and after the cry he fell fainting to the ground. But in an hour[218] he came to, when the evening evened and the wax candles and the chandeliers were lighted, his desire grew and his patience flew and he would have risen to his feet and wandered in his craze but he found no force in his knees. So he feared for himself and he remained sitting as before.—And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased saying her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, "How sweet and tasteful is thy tale, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!" Quoth she, "And where is this compared with that I would relate to you on the coming night an the Sovran suffer me to survive?" Now when it was the next night and that was
The Six Hundred and Seventy-eighth Night,
Dunyazad said to her, "Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!" She replied, "With love and good will!" It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that when Yusuf remained sitting as before, Al-Hayfa asked him saying, "How art thou hight, O dearling of my heart and fruit of my vitals?" Hereupon he told her his name and the name of his sire, and related to her the whole of what had befallen him, first and last, with the affair of the concubine and his faring forth from his own city and how he had sighted her Palace and had swum the stream and shot the shaft that carried the paper, after which he recited to her these couplets,
"I left my home for a fair young maid * Whose love my night with
its light array'd;
Yet wot I not what her name may be * Thus ignorance mating with
union forbade.
But when of her gifts I was certified * Her gracious form the
feat easy made;
The King of Awe sent my steps to her * And to union with beauty
vouchsafed me aid:
Indeed disgrace ever works me shame * Tho' long my longing to
meet I'm afraid."