Sayfa 722 / 1116

When she ended her verse she asked me, "O youth, hast thou any

fair stuffs by thee?"; and I answered, "O my lady, thy slave is

poor; but have patience till the merchants open their shops, and

I will suit thee with what thou wilt." Then we sat talking, I and

she (and I was drowned in the sea of her love, dazed in the

desert[FN#556] of my passion for her), till the merchants opened

their shops; when I rose and fetched her all she sought to the

tune of five thousand dirhams. She gave the stuff to the eunuch

and, going forth by the door of the Exchange, she mounted mule

and went away, without telling me whence she came, and I was

ashamed to speak of such trifle. When the merchants dunned me for

the price, I made myself answerable for five thousand dirhams and

went home, drunken with the love of her. They set supper before

me and I ate a mouthful, thinking only of her beauty and

loveliness, and sought to sleep, but sleep came not to me.