Then
she dressed me and said to me, "Go to her and may God fulfil your
wish and bring thee to thy desire of thy beloved!" So I went out
and walked on, till I came to the by-street. I found the dyer's
shop shut, for it was Saturday, and sat before it, till I heard
the call to afternoon-prayer. Then the sun turned pale, the
Muezzins chanted the call to the prayer of sunset and the night
came; but I saw no sign nor heard aught of her. With this, I
feared for myself, sitting there alone; so I rose and went home,
staggering like a drunken man. When I reached the house, I found
my cousin Azizeh standing, with one hand grasping a peg driven
into the wall and the other on her breast; and she was sighing
heavily and repeating the following verses:
The longing of a Bedouin maid, whose folk are far away, Who
yearns after the willow of the Hejaz and the hay,[FN#129]
Whose tears, when she on travellers lights, might for their water
serve And eke her passion, with its heat, their bivouac-fire
purvey,
Is not more fierce nor ardent than my longing for my love, Who
deems that I commit a crime in loving him alway.
When she had finished, she turned and seeing me, wiped away her
tears and mine with her sleeve. Then she smiled in my face and
said, "O my cousin, God grant thee joy of that which He hath
given thee! Why didst thou not pass the night with thy beloved
and why hast thou not fulfilled thy desire of her?" When I heard
what she said, I gave her a kick in the breast and she fell over
on to the edge of the estrade and struck her forehead against a
peg there.
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