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To even her with greeny bough were vain * Fool he who finds her

beauties in the roe: When hath the roe those lively lovely limbs

* Or honey dews those lips alone bestow? 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.-