Thousand & One Nights: 173rd Night: The Wealthy Man & The Slave Girl- 3

The following night Shahrazad said:
I heard, O happy King, that when Nur al-Din Ali said this his companion replied, "I have no knowledge of her intention; nor do I know her well enough to make inferences and discover the true state of mystery; besides, so far we have seen nothing; but what is wonderful is delightful."

The following narrative was by Abu al-Hasan:
"As we are talking to each other, the black girl came and ordered the reclining damsels to sing, and one of them tuned her lute and sang the verses:

Smitten with love, ignorant love, 
My heart burned with desire,
No sin did I commit, save my tears 
In spite of me, revealed my secret.

The young man cried out, "Bravo! This is wonderful!" She continued:

Little hope, but long  for thee
My sighs of passion rise to thee
As if coldest breath blazing fire.

Nur al-Din Ali breathed deeply and said, "Excellent!  Bravo!  You have sung with perfection."  Then he repeated the verses with tears in his eyes.  The damsel continued:

Your love grows deeply in my breast.
Reign in my heart and rule as you like
A lonely heart that pines and wastes
Where disdain is tormenting fire
Reap what you sow; either gold or ill 
The lover's lot is martyr's pyre.

Nur al-Din Ali wept and kept repeating the line for a while, when suddenly the damsels leapt from their places, and tuning their instruments, burst with one voice into a song with these lines:

Glory to God who caused this moon
Bringing together the lover to love.
Who has seen the sun and moon 
In Eden or earth; who has ever.

We looked in their direction and saw the first maid who had come to my shop and brought us here, standing at the far end of the garden, while ten maid servants came in, carrying a large silver couch, placed it among the trees, and stood waiting in front of it. They were followed by twenty damsels like moons, wearing all kinds of jewellery and carrying all kinds of musical instruments.  They moved in a procession, singing the same melody in unison, until they reached the couch, and arranging themselves on each side, continued to play so well that we began to feel that whole place was swaying with their beautiful music.  Then came in a group of ten damsels, who were beautiful beyond description and who wore vestments and jewels that matched their  beauty and charm, and they stood by the door, while another group just like them walked in and among them walked Shams al-Nahar."

Morning overtook and Shahrazad lapsed into silence 







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