" The King at
once gave him leave to visit her; so he betook himself to his
brother Noureddin's house and went round about it and kissed its
threshold. And he bethought him of his brother and how he had
died in a strange land and wept and repeated the following
verses:
I wander through the halls, the halls where Leila lived, And kiss
the lifeless walls that of her passage tell.
It is not for the house that I with passion burn, But for the
cherished ones that erst therein did dwell.
Then he entered the gate and found himself in a spacious
courtyard, at the end whereof was a door vaulted over with hard
stone, inlaid with vari-coloured marbles. He walked round about
the house, and casting his eyes on the walls, saw the name of his
brother Noureddin written on them in letters of gold. So he went
up to the inscription and kissed it and wept for his brother's
loss and repeated the following verses:
I sue unto the rising sun, each morn, for news of thee, And of
the lightning's lurid gleam I do for thee enquire.
The hands of passion and of pain sport with me all the night; Yet
I complain not of the ills I suffer from desire.
O my beloved, if the times be yet for me prolonged, be all
consumed with separation's fire.
Lo! if thy sight one happy day should bless my longing eyes,
There is no other thing on earth that I of Fate require.
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