I see you with my heart from far countrie * Would Heaven you also me from far could see My heart and eyes for you are sorrowing; * My soul with you abides and you with me. I take no joy in life when you’re unseen * Or Heaven or Garden of Eternity.
Said I, “O Otbah, O son of my uncle, repent to thy Lord and drave pardon for thy sin; for before thee is the terror of standing up to Judgment.” He replied, “Far be it from me so to do. I shall never leave to love till the two mimosa-gatherers return.”[FN#84] I abode with him till daybreak, when I said to him, “Come let us go to the Mosque Al-Ahzab.” So we went thither and sat there, till we had prayed the midday prayers, when lo! up came the women; but the damsel was not among them. Quoth they to him, “O Otbah, what thinkest thou of her who seeketh union with thee?” He said, “And what of her?”; and they replied, “Her father hath taken her and departed to Al-Samawah.”[FN#85] I asked them the name of the damsel and they said, “She is called Rayyá, daughter of Al-Ghitríf al-Sulami.”[FN#86] Whereupon Otbah raised his head and recited these verses,
“My friends, Rayya hath mounted soon as morning shone, * And to Samawah’s wilds her caravan is gone. My friends, I’ve wept till I can weep no more, Oh, say, * Hath any one a tear that I can take on loan.”