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not said this to thy mother, neither had she bidden thee to her country nor acquainted thee with her abiding-place.’ ‘O mistress of kings and asylum of rich and poor,’ rejoined Hassan, ‘I have told thee what happened and have concealed nought thereof, and I appeal to God and to thee for succour; wherefore oppress me not, but have compassion on me and earn recompense and requital for me [from God] by aiding me to regain my wife and children. Grant me my urgent need and solace mine eyes with my children and help me to the sight of them.’ Then he wept and lamented and recited the following verses:
What while the turtle-dove complains, I’ll praise thee with my might, Albeit I should fail of that which is thy due and right.
For, lo, I wallowed not in joys of old, but now I find Thee to have been the cause and spring of all my past delight.
The queen shook her head and bowed it in thought a great while; then, raising it, she said to Hassan (and indeed she was wroth), ‘I have compassion on thee and am resolved to show thee all the girls in the city and in the provinces of my island; and if thou know thy wife, I will deliver her to thee; but, if thou know her not and know not her place, I will put thee to death and crucify thee over the old woman’s door.’ ‘I accept this from thee, O queen of the age,’ answered Hassan, ‘and am content to submit to this thy condition. There is no power and no virtue but in God the Most High, the Supreme!’ And he recited the following verses:
Ye’ve roused my heart to love and yet unmoved yourselves remain; Ye’ve doomed my wounded lids to wake and sleep, whilst I complain.
Ye swore to me that ye would keep your plighted faith with me; But, when my heart was yours, you broke the oath that you had ta’en.
I loved you as a child, indeed, unknowing what love was; Wherefore ’twere surely foul unright, if I of you be slain.
Fear ye not God and will ye slay a lover who anights Watches the stars, whilst all but he are bound in slumber’s chain?
