Such deed is yours and ne’er shall it, by Allah satisfy ✿ A boy, a slave of Allah’s slaves who still to slave is fain.”
Then Prince Yusuf robed Ibn Ibrahim in a robe of green; and giving him an hundred gold pieces, entrusted him with the letter which he carried to Al-Hayfa and handed it to her. She brake the seal and read it and considered its contents, whereupon she wept with sore weeping which ended in her shrieking aloud; and after she abode perplext as to her affair and for a time she found no sweetness in meat and drink nor was sleep pleasant to her for the stress of her love-longing to Yusuf. Also her nature tempted her to cast herself headlong from the terrace of the Palace; but Ibn Ibrahim forbade her saying, “Do thou write to him replies, time after time; haply shall his heart be turned and he will return unto thee.” So she again called for writing materials and indited these couplets, which came from the very core of her heart:—
“Thou art homed in a heart nothing else shall invade; ✿ Save thy love and thyself naught shall stay in such stead;
O thou, whose brilliancy lights his brow, ✿ Shaped like sandhill-tree with his locks for shade,
Forbid Heaven my like to aught else incline ✿ Save you whose beauties none like display’d:
Art thou no amongst mortals a starless moon ✿ O beauty the dazzle of day hath array’d?”
These she committed[[249]] to Ibn Ibrahim who rode again on his route and forgathered with Prince Yusuf and gave him the letter, whose contents were grievous to him; so he took writing materials and returned a reply in the following verses:—
“Cease then to carry missives others write, ✿ O Son of Ibrahim, shun silly plight:
I’m healed of longing for your land and I ✿ Those days forget and daysters lost to sight:
Let then Al-Hayfá learn from me I love ✿ Distance from her and furthest earthly site.