' So Aziz took a scroll and wrote the
following verses:
O Lord, by the Five Elders, deliver me, I pray, And her, for whom
I suffer, in like affliction lay!
Thou knowest that I weary in raging flames of love; Whilst she I
love is cruel and saith me ever nay.
How long shall I be tender to her, despite my pain? How long
shall she ride roughshod o'er my weakness night and day?
In agonies I wander of never-ceasing death And find nor friend
nor helper, O Lord, to be my stay.
Full fain would I forget her; but how can I forget, When for
desire my patience is wasted all away?
Thou that forbidst my passion the sweets of happy love, Art thou
then safe from fortune, that shifts and changes aye?
Art thou not glad and easeful and blest with happy life, Whilst
I, for thee, an exile from folk and country stray?
Then he folded the letter and gave it to Taj el Mulouk, who read
the verses and was pleased with them. So he handed the letter to
the old woman, who took it and carried it to the princess. When
she read it, she was greatly enraged and said, 'All that has
befallen me comes from this pernicious old woman!' Then she cried
out to the damsels and eunuchs, saying, 'Seize this accursed old
trickstress and beat her with your slippers!' So they beat her
till she swooned away; and when she revived, the princess said to
her, 'By Allah, O wicked old woman, did I not fear God the Most
High, I would kill thee!' Then she bade them beat her again, and
they did so, till she fainted a second time, whereupon the
princess ordered them to drag her forth and throw her without the
palace.
Pages:
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374