Then they sat down and conversed
with me till nightfall, when five of them arose and spreading a
mat, covered it with flowers and fruits and confections in
profusion and set on wine; and we sat down to drink, while some
of them sang and others played the lute and psaltery and
recorders and other instruments. So the cup went round amongst us
and such gladness possessed me that I forgot all the cares of the
world and said, "This is indeed life, but that it is fleeting."
We ceased not to drink and make merry till the night was far
spent and we were warm with wine, when they said to me, "O our
lord, choose from amongst us one who shall be thy bedfellow this
night and not lie with thee again till forty days be past." So I
chose a girl fair of face, with liquid black eyes and jetty hair,
slightly parted teeth[FN#46] and joining eyebrows, perfect in
shape and form, as she were a palm-sapling or a stalk of sweet
basil; such an one as troubles the heart and bewilders the wit,
even as saith of her the poet:
'Twere vain to liken her unto the tender branch, And out on who
compares her form to the gazelle!
Whence should gazelles indeed her shape's perfection get Or yet
her honeyed lips so sweet to taste and smell,
Or those great eyes of hers, so dire to those who love, That bind
their victims fast in passion's fatal spell?
I dote on her with all the folly of a child.
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