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such gladness possessed me that I forgot all the cares of the world and said, “This is indeed life, but that it is fleeting.” We ceased not to drink and make merry till the night was far spent and we were warm with wine, when they said to me, “O our lord, choose from amongst us one who shall be thy bedfellow this night and not lie with thee again till forty days be past.” So I chose a girl fair of face, with liquid black eyes and jetty hair, slightly parted teeth[1] and joining eyebrows, perfect in shape and form, as she were a palm-sapling or a stalk of sweet basil; such an one as troubles the heart and bewilders the wit, even as saith of her the poet:
’Twere vain to liken her unto the tender branch, And out on who compares her form to the gazelle!
Whence should gazelles indeed her shape’s perfection get Or yet her honeyed lips so sweet to taste and smell,
Or those great eyes of hers, so dire to those who love, That bind their victims fast in passion’s fatal spell?
I dote on her with all the folly of a child. What wonder if he turn a child who loves too well!
And I repeated to her the following verses:
My eyes to gaze on aught but thy grace disdain And none but thou in my thought shall ever reign.
The love of thee is my sole concern, my fair; In love of thee, I will die and rise again.
So I lay with her that night, never knew I a fairer, and when it was morning, the ladies carried me to the bath and washed me and clad me in rich clothes. Then they served up food and we ate and drank, and the cup went round amongst us till the night, when I chose from among them one who was fair to look upon and soft of sides, such an one as the poet describes, when he says:
- ↑ The Arabs consider a slight division of the two middle teeth a beauty.
