Page 746 sur 1116

The Nile[FN#576] flood this day is the gain you own; * You alone

in such gain and bounties wone: The Nile is my tear flood of

severance, * And here none is forlorn but I alone.

Moreover temperate is her air, and with fragrance blent, Which

surpasseth aloes wood in scent; and how should it be otherwise,

she being the Mother of the World? And Allah favour him who wrote

these lines:-

An I quit Cairo and her pleasaunces, * Where can I wend to find

so gladsome ways? Shall I desert that site, whose grateful scents

* Joy every soul and call for loudest praise? Where every palace,

as another Eden, * Carpets and cushions richly wrought displays;

A city wooing sight and sprite to glee, * Where Saint meets

Sinner and each 'joys his craze; Where friend meets friend, by

Providence united * In greeny garden and in palmy maze: People of

Cairo, and by Allah's doom * I fare, with you in thoughts I wone

always! Whisper not Cairo in the ear of Zephyr, * Lest for her

like of garden scents he reave her.[FN#577]