Passion hath made me restless and yearning consumes my soul And tears discover my secretthat else concealed had lain.
I know of no way to ease me of sickness and care and woe;Nor can my weak endeavour reknit Love's severed skein.
My heart is a raging furnacebecause of the heat whereof My entrails are racked with anguishthat nothing can assain.
O thouthat thinkest to blame me for what is fallen on me,EnoughI suffer with patience whatever the Fates ordain.
I swear I shall ne'er find comfort nor be consoled for them,The oath of the children of passionwhose oaths are never in vain!
Bear tidingsO nightto my dear ones and greet them and witness bear That thou knowest in thee I sleep notbut ever to wake am fain.
Meanwhilethe hermit said to Uns el Wujoud'Go down into the valley and fetch me palm-fibre.'So he went and returned with the palm-fibrewhich the hermit took and twisting into ropes,made therewith a netsuch as is used for carrying straw;after which he said to the youth'O Uns el Wujoudin the heart of the valley grows a gourdwhich springs up and dries upon its roots. Go thither and fill this net therewith;then tie it together and casting it into the waterembark thereon and make for the midst of the seaso haply thou shalt come to thy desire;for hewho adventureth not himselfshall not attain that he seeketh.'I hear and obey,'answered Uns el Wujoud and bidding the hermit farewell after he had prayed for himbetook himself to the hollow of the valleywhere he did as he had counselled him and launched out upon the watersupported by the net.
Then there arose a windwhich drove him out to seatill he was lost to the hermit's view;and he ceased not to fare on over the abysses of the oceanone billow tossing him up on the crest of the wave and another bearing him down into the trough of the seaand he beholding the while the terrors and wonders of the deepfor the space of three daysat the end of which time Fate cast him upon the Mount of the Bereft Motherwhere he landedweak and giddy as a fledgling birdfor hunger and thirst;butfinding there streams running and birds warbling on the branches and fruit-laden treesgrowing in clusters and singlyhe ate of the fruits and drank of the streams. Then he walked on till he saw some white thing alar offand making for itfound that it was a strongly-fortified castle. So he went up to the gate and finding it lockedsat down by it.
He sat thus three days and on the fourththe gate opened and an eunuch came outwho seeing Uns el Wujoud seated theresaid to him'Whence comest thou and who brought thee hither?'Quoth he'I come from Ispahan and was travelling by sea with merchandisewhen my ship was wrecked and the waves cast me upon this island.'When the eunuch heard thishe wept and embraced himsaying'God preserve theeO [thou that bringest me the] fragrance of the beloved! Ispahan is my own country and I have there a cousinthe daughter of my father's brother,whom I loved and cherished from a child;but a people stronger than we fell upon us and taking me among other bootydocked me and sold me for an eunuchwhilst I was yet a lad;and this is how I come to be what I am.'Then he carried him into the courtyard of the castlewhere he saw a great basin of water,surrounded by treeson whose branches hung cages of silver,with doors of goldand therein birds warbling and singing the praises of the Requiting King. In the first cage he came to was a turtle dove whichseeing himraised her voice and cried outsaying'O Bountiful One!'Whereat he fell down in a swoonbutpresently coming to himselfsighed heavily and recited the following verses:
O turtleart thou mad for loveas is my case? Then sing'O Bountiful!'and seek the Lord His grace!
Tell medoth thy descant in joyance tale its rise Or in desireful painthat in thy heart hath place?
If for desire thou moan'st of bygone loves or pin'st For dear ones that have gone and left thee but their trace,Or if thou'st lost thy lovelike meahthenindeed,Severance long-felt desire discovereth apace.
God guard a lover true! Though my bones rotnor time Nor absence from my heart her image shall efface.
Then he fainted again and presently coming to his senseswent on to the second cagewherein he found a ring-dove. When it saw himit sang out'O EternalI praise thee!'and he sighed and recited these verses:
I heard a ring-dove say in her plaintive note'Despite of my woesO EternalI praise Thee still!'
And Godof His gracereunion of our lovesin this my travel,may yet to us fulfil.
She visits me oftwith her dusk-red honeyed lipsAnd lends to the passion within me an added thrill.
And I crywhilst the fires in my tortured heart flame high And my soul for ardour consumes and my eyes distil Tears that resemble blood and withouten cease Pour down on my wasted cheeks in many a rill,There's none created without afflictionand I Must bear with patience my tribulationsuntil The hour of solace with her I love one day Unite me. Ahthen,by God His power and will,In succouring loversI vowI'll spend my goodFor they're of my tribe and category still;
And eke from prison I'll loose the birdsto bootAnd leave,for joyancethe thought of every ill!
Then he went on to the third cagein which was a mocking-bird.
When it saw himit set up a songand he recited the following verses:
The mocking-bird delighteth me with his harmonious strainAs'twere a lover's voice that pines and wastes for love in vain.
Woe's me for those that lovers be! How many a weary nightFor love and anguish and desireto waken they are fain!
'Twould seem as if they had no part in morning or in sleepFor all the stress of love and woe that holds their heart and brain.
When I became distraught for her I love and wistfulness Bound me in fetters straitthe tears from out mine eyes did rain So thick and fastthey were as chainsand I to her did say,'My tears have fallen so thickthat now they've bound me with a chain.'
The treasures of my patience failabsence is long on me And yearning sore;and passion's stress consumeth me amain.