My daughter hast snatched, O thou foul of deed, ✿ And approachest me fearing the Lion of the horde.
Hadst come in honour and fairly sued ✿ I had made her thine own with the best accord;
But this rape hath o’erwhelmed in dishonour foul ✿ Her sire, and all bounds thou hast overscor’d.”
Now when King Al-Mihrjan finished his verse, Yusuf rushed out to him, and cried at him with a terrible cry and a terrifying, and garred his own steed bound upon the battle-plain, where he played with brand and lance until he cast into oblivion every knight, reciting in the meantime the following verses:—
“I am son to Al-Sahl, O of forbears vile! ✿ Come forth and fight me sans guile or wile;
Thou hast hurt my heart; O of deed misdone, ✿ So thou com’st to contend with this rank and file.”[[271]]
King Al-Mihrjan re-echoed his war-cry, but hardly had he ended when Yusuf drawing near him answered it with a shout which enquaked his heart and ravished his reason with sore terror, and repeated in reply these couplets:—
“I am not to be titled of forbears vile ✿ O whose ape-like face doth the tribe defile!
Nay, I’m rending lion amid mankind, ✿ A hero in wilds where the murks beguile.
Al-Hayfá befitteth me, only me; ✿ Ho thou whom men for an ape[[272]] revile.”