burton--1001-nights--sample

Those eyne, soul-piercing eyne, which slay with love, * Which bind the
victim by their shafts laid low?
My heart to second childhood they beguiled * No wonder: love-sick
man again is child!
And I repeated to her the maker’s words who said: —
None other charms but thine shall greet mine eyes, * Nor other image
can my heart surprise:
Thy love, my lady, captives all my thoughts * And on that love I’ll die
and I’ll arise.
So I lay with her that night; none fairer I ever knew; and, when it was
morning, the damsels carried me to the Hammam-bath and bathed me
and robed me in fairest apparel. Then they served up food, and we ate
and drank and the cup went round till nightfall when I chose from
among them one fair of form and face, soft-sided and a model of grace,
such an one as the poet described when he said: —
On her fair bosom caskets twain I scanned, * Sealed fast with muskseals
lovers to withstand;
With arrowy glances stand on guard her eyes, * Whose shafts would
shoot who dares put forth a hand.
With her I spent a most goodly night; and, to be brief, O my mistress,
I remained with them in all solace and delight of life, eating and
drinking, conversing and carousing and every night lying with one or
other of them. But at the head of the new year they came to me in tears
and bade me farewell, weeping and crying out and clinging about me;
whereat I wondered and said, “What may be the matter? verily you
break my heart!” They exclaimed, “Would Heaven we had never
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