Now, since I have explained, blame me not that ye have been hindered in the vintage of the cates;

For my excuse in what I have done is plain; and I will repair the rent I have made by my resources, old or new;

So that the pleasantry that I will supply you with shall be more delicious than sweetmeats in the judgment of all the intelligent.

Said Al Ḥârith, son of Hammâm: Then we accepted his excusing, and kissed his cheek,—And said to him, “Long since treachery vexed the Best of Mankind, so that there was declared concerning the woman that carried firewood that which was declared.”—After this we asked him of the behaviour of this tell-tale neigh­bour, this unregardful intimate.—After he had feathered against him the arrow of delation, and cut the cord of observance,—He said, He took to submission and humil­iation, and to interceding with me by people of degree. —But I had straitly charged myself that my familiarity should not seek a return to him until my yesterday should return to me.—And he gained nothing from me but refusal and persistence in aversion; yet was he not disheartened by repulse, nor shamed from his impudence of face; but persevered in overtures and was urgent in requests;—And nought freed me from his annoying and made hopeless to him the gaining of his desire, save some verses in which breathed the vengeful breast and the wounded spirit.—And these proved a driving forth to his devil, an imprisoning of him in his dwelling.—And on their publication he made an irrevocable divorce with joy, and cried, Alas! Perdition!—And despaired of the resurrection of my buried friendship as the infidels despair of the tenants of the tombs.—Then we conjured him to recite them, and give us to smell their fragrance. —He said, “Be it so: man is made up of impatience.” —So he recited, and no bashfulness hindered him, no timidity restrained him:

There was a companion to whom I gave the pure milk of my love’s truth when I fancied him true and a friend;

But to whom I showed the estrangement of him that hates when I found him to be foul as the matter of a sore or as tepid water.

I fancied him, before he was tried, a familiar and dutiful; but he has shown himself a churl, one to be censured:

I chose him as one to converse with me, but my heart is now wounded by his wronging;

I thought him to be a helper and compassionate, but I have dis­covered him to be an accursed one, a devil to be driven away with stones;

I looked upon him as one devoted to me, but my testing of him has disclosed him as a fiend perverse and vile;

And I judged that he would blow a gentle breeze, but he would blow nought but a simoom.

From his serpent-bite which baffled the enchanter I lay wounded; but he had no hurt from me.

On the morning of our separation his condition was erect, but my body was sick;

He was not pleasant and abundant to me; nay, by his evil­doing he was terrible to me, and an adversary.

I said, when I had made trial of him, “Would that he existed not, that he had not been a companion to me.”

By his betrayal he made hateful the morning to my heart, since the morning is found to be a betrayer;

And he has brought me to the love of the night, since the black of darkness is a watcher that conceals;

And enough of guilt and blame has the informer in his work, even though he speak the truth.

Said Al Ḥârith: Now when the master of the house heard his verse and his cadence, and admired his encomium and his satire,—He set him on the couch of his respect, and gave him the first place on his cushion of honour;—Then he bade bring ten dishes of silver, on which were sweetmeats of candy and honey,—And said to him, “The people of the Fire are not as the people of the Garden; nor is it lawful that the innocent should be made as the suspected.—Now these vessels take rank among the sinless in the keeping of secrets; so show them not aversion, nor count Hûd with ‘Âd.”—Then he bade his servant carry them to his lodging that he might do with them as he would.—And Abû Zayd turned to us and said, “Recite the Chapter of Victory, and be gladsome at the healing of your wound;—For now God hath repaired your bereavement and permitted your meal, and gathered you together to sweetmeats; and it may be that ye mislike a thing, and yet it is your good.”—And when he was thinking of departure he inclined to beg the dishes as a present,—And said to the entertainer, “Truly it is among the marks of good breeding that he who gives aught should give the vessel that holds it.”—Said the host, “Both of them and the boy; so speak no more, but rise in peace.”—And he leaped up to the reply, and thanked the host as the meadow thanks the rain-cloud.—Then did Abû Zayd lead us to his tent and give us to dispose of his sweet­meats, and began to pass round the dishes, and to divide their contents among the company;—And he said: I know not whether I should complain of that betrayer or thank him; whether I should forget his act or remember it.—For though he was aggressive in his wrong and tinseled his treacherous tale, yet from his cloud did this plenteous rain pour down, and from his sword did this spoil come in to me.—And now it is moving in my mind that I should return to my cubs, and be content with what has come thus easily, and not weary myself nor my camels.—So I will take leave of you as one that is regardful, and commend you to the Best of Guardians. —Then he mounted his beast to return on his track, to bend his course to his people.—And when his strong camel coursed along and his sociableness quitted us, he left us as an assembly whose president is gone, or a night whose moon has set.