At last they mentioned Egypt and one of my
uncles said, 'Travellers say that there is not on the face of the
earth aught fairer than Cairo and its Nile.' Quoth my father,
'Who has not seen Cairo has not seen the world. Its dust is gold
and its Nile a wonder; its women are houris and its houses
palaces: its air is temperate and the fragrance of its breezes
outvies the scent of aloes-wood: and how should it be otherwise,
being the mother of the world? Bravo for him who says,' And he
repeated the following verses:
Shall I from Cairo wend and leave the sweets of its delight? What
sojourn after it indeed were worth a longing thought?
How shall I leave its fertile plains, whose earth unto the scent
Is very perfume, for the land contains no thing that's
naught?
It is indeed for loveliness a very Paradise, With all its goodly
carpet[FN#84] spread and cushions richly wrought.
A town that maketh heart and eye yearn with its goodliness,
Uniting all that of devout and profligate is sought,
Or comrades true, by God His grace conjoined in brotherhood,
Their meeting-place the groves of palms that cluster round
about.
O men of Cairo, if it be God's will that I depart, Let bonds of
friendship and of love unite us still in thought!
Name not the city to the breeze, lest for its rival lands It
steal the perfumes, wherewithal its garden-ways are fraught.
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