She lords it o'er our hearts in grass-green gown, ✿ With buttons[514] loose and locks long flowing down. Quoth I, "What is thy name?" Quoth she, "I'm she, ✿ Who burns the loverheart live coals upon:" I made my plaint to her of loving lowe; ✿ Laughed she, "To stone thou moanest useless moan!" Quoth I, "An be of hardest stone thy heart, ✿ Allah drew sweetest spring from hardest stone."
When she saw me she laughed and said, "How is it that thou art awake and that sleep overcame thee not? Forasmuch as thou hast watched through the night, I know that thou art a lover; for night-watching is the mark of lovers displaying brave endurance of their desires." Then she turned to her women and signed to them and they went away from her, whereupon she came up to me and strained me to her breast and kissed me, whilst I kissed her, and she sucked my upper lip whilst I sucked her lower lip. I put my hand to her waist and pressed it and we came not to the ground save at the same moment. Then she undid her petticoat-trousers which slipped down to her anklets, and we fell to clasping and embracing and toying and speaking softly and biting and intertwining of legs and going round about the Holy House and the corners thereof,[515] till her joints became relaxed for love-delight and she swooned away. I entered the sanctuary, and indeed that night was a joy to the sprite and a solace to the sight even as saith the poet:—
Sweetest of nights the world can show to me, that night ✿ When cups went round and round as fed by ceaseless spring: There utter severance made I 'twixt mine eyes and sleep, ✿ And joined, rejoined mine ear-drop with the anklet-ring.[516]
We lay together in close embrace till the morning when I would have gone away, but she stopped me and said, "Stay till I tell thee something"——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Hundred-and-nineteenth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young merchant continued his recital to Taj al-Muluk:—When I would have gone away, she stopped me and said, "Stay, till I tell thee something and charge thee with a charge." So I stayed whilst she unfolded a kerchief and drew out this piece of linen and spread it open before me. I found worked on it these two figures of gazelles and admired it with great admiration. Then I took the piece of linen and went away, joyful, after we had agreed that I should visit her every night in the garden; but in my joy I forgot to repeat to her the verse my cousin had taught me. For when giving me the piece of linen with the gazelles she had said to me, "Keep this carefully, as it is my sister's handiwork." I asked her, "What is thy sister's name?"; and she answered, "Her name is Núr al-Hudà." When I went to my cousin, I found her lying down; but as soon as she saw me, she rose, with the tears running from her eyes, and came up to me, and kissed me on the breast and said, "Didst thou do as I enjoined thee? and repeat the verse to her?" "I forgot it," replied I; "and nothing drove it out of my mind but these two figured gazelles." And I threw the piece of linen on the floor before her. She rose and sat down again, but was unable to contain herself for impatience, and her eyes ran over with tears, whilst she repeated these two couplets:—