he, and she said, "Not so, by Allah! 'tis even as saith the poet:—
Quoth they "Thou rav'st on him thou lov'st': quoth I," ○ "The sweets of love are only for th' insane!"
Love never maketh Time his friend befriend; ○ Only the Jinn-struck wight such boon can gain:
Well! yes, I'm mad: bring him who madded me ○ And, if he cure my madness, blame restrain!
Then she let Marzawan know that she was love-daft and he said "Tell me concerning thy tale and what befel thee: haply there may be in my hand something which shall be a means of deliverance for thee."—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of da, and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred and Ninety-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Marzawar thus addressed Princess Budur, "Tell me concerning thy tale and what befel thee: haply Allah may inspire me with a means of deliverance for thee." Quoth she, "O my brother, hear my story which is this. One night I awoke from sleep, in the last third of the night [1] and, sitting up, saw by my side the handsomest of youths that be, and tongue faileth to describe him, for he was as a willow-wand or an Indian rattan-cane. So methought it was my father who had done on this wise in order thereby to try me, for that he had consulted me concerning wedlock, when the Kings sought me of him to wife, and I had refused. It was this though withheld me from arousing him, for I feared that, if I did aught of embraced him, he would peradventure inform my father of m, doings. But in the morning, I found on my finger his seal-ring, in place of my own which he had taken. And, O my brother, m, heart was seized with love of him at first sight; and, for the violence of my passion and longing, I have never savoured the taste of sleep and have no occupation save weeping alway and repeating verses night and day. And this, O my brother, is my
- ↑
—Quirinus
Post mediam noctem visus, quum somnia vera.
(Horace Sat. i. 10, 33,)
The moderns believe most in the dawn-dream.
