书城公版Volume Four
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第69章 UNS EL WUJOUD AND THE VIZIER$$$$$S DAUGHTER ROSE-I

If God's protection cover me and Fortune be but just And Fate with her whom I adore unite me once again,I'll doff my clothesthat she may see how worn my body isFor languishment and severance and solitary pain.

Then he went on to the fourth cagewhere he found a nightingalewhichat sight of himbegan to tune its plaintive note. When he heard its descanthe burst into tears and repeated the following verses:

The nightingale's notewhen the dawning is nearDistracts from the lute-strings the true lover's ear.

Complainethfor love-longingUns el WujoudOf a passion that blotteth his being out sheer.

How many sweet notesthat would softenfor mirthThe hardness of iron and stonedo I hear!

The zephyr of morning brings tidings to me Of meadows,full-flower'd for the blossoming year.

The scents on the breeze and the music of birdsIn the dawningtransport me with joyance and cheer.

But I think of a loved onethat's absent from meAnd mine eyes rain in torrentswith tear upon tear;And the ardour of longing flames high in my breastAs a fire in the heart of a brasier burns clear.

May Allah vouchsafe to a lover distraught To see and foregather once more with his dear!

Yeafor loversheart-sickness and longing and woe And wake are excuses that plainly appear.

Then he went on a little and came to a handsome cagethan which there was no goodlier thereand in it a culverthat is to Saya wood-pigeonthe bird renowned among the birds as the singer of love-longingwith a collar of jewels about its neck,wonder-goodly of ordinance. He considered it awhile and seeing it mazed and brooding in its cageshed tears and repeated these verses:

O culver of the copsemay peace upon thee lightO friend of all who love and every wistful wight!

I love a young gazellea slender onewhose glance Than sharpest sabre's point is keener and more bright.

For love of hermy heart and entrails are a-fire And sicknesses consume my body and my spright.

The sweet of pleasant food's forbidden unto meAnd eke I am denied the taste of sleep's delight.

Solace and fortitude have taken flight from meAnd love and longing lodge with meboth day and night.

How shall my life be sweet to mewhile she's afarThat is my lifemy wishthe apple of my sight?

When the pigeon heard these versesit awoke from its brooding and cooed and warbled and trilledtill it all but spoke;and the tongue of the case interpreted for it and recited the following verses:

O loverthy wailings recall to my mind The time when my youth from me wasted and dwined,And A mistresswhose charms and whose grace I adored,Seductive and fair over all of her kind;Whose voicefrom the twigs of the sandhill upraisedLeft the strains of the fluteto my thoughtfar behind.

A snare set the fowler and caught mewho cried'Would he d leave me to range at my will on the wind!'

I had hoped he was clement or seeing that I Was a loverwould pity my lot and be kind;But no(may God smite him!)he tore me away From my dear and apart from her harshly confined.

Since thenmy desire for her grows without ceaseAnd my heart with the fires of disjunction is mined.

God guard a true loverwho striveth with love And hath suffered the torments in which I have pined!

When he seeth me languish for love in my cageHe will loose mein mercymy loved one to find Then Uns el Wujoud turned to his friendthe Ispahani and said to him'What palace is this? Who built it and who abideth in it?'Quoth the eunuch'The Vizier of King Shamikh built it for his daughterfearing for her the assaults of fate and the vicissitudes of fortuneand lodged her thereinwith her attendants;nor do we open it save once in every yearwhen our victual comes to us.'And Uns el Wujoud said in himself'I have gained my end'though after long travail.'

MeanwhileRose-in-bud took no delight in eating nor drinking,sitting nor sleeping;but her transport and passion and love-longing redoubled on herand she went wandering about the castlebut could find no issue;wherefore she shed plenteous tears and recited the following verses:

They have prisoned me straitly from him I adore And given me to eat of mine anguish galore.

My heart with the flames of love-longing they firedWhen me from the sight of my loved one they bore.

They have cloistered me close in a palace built high On a mount in the midst of a sea without shore.

If they'd have me forgettheir endeavour is vainFor my love but redoubles upon me the more.

How can I forget himwhen all I endure Arose from the sight of his face heretofore?

My days are consumed in lamentand my nights Pass in thinking of himas I knew him of yore.

His memory my solace in solitude isSince the lack of his presence I needs must deplore.

I wonderwill Fate grant my heart its desire And my love,after allto my wishes restore!

Then she donned her richest clothes and trinkets and threw a necklace of jewels around her neck;after which she ascended to the roof of the castle and tying some strips of Baalbek stuff together,[to serve for a rope]made them fast to the battlements and let herself down thereby to the ground. Then she fared on over wastes and wildstill she came to the sea-shorewhere she saw a fishing-boatand therein a fishermanwhom the wind had driven on to the islandas he wentfishing here and thereon the sea.

When he saw herhe was affrighted[ taking her for a Jinniyeh]and put out again to sea;but she cried out and made pressing signs to him to returnreciting the following verses:

HarkyeO fishermanfear thou no injury;I'm but an earthly maida mortal like to thee.

I do implore theestaygive ear unto my prayer And hearken to my true and woeful history.

Pity(so God thee spare,)the ardour [of my love,] And say if thou hast seen a loved onefled from me.

I love a fair-faced youth and goodly;brighter far Of aspect than the face of sun or moon is he.

The antelopethat sees his glancescries'His slave Am I,'and doth confess inferiority.

Yeabeauty on his brow these pregnant words hath writ In very dust of musksignificant to see,'Who sees the light of love is in the way of rightAnd he who strays commits foul sin and heresy.'