THE QUESTIONING OF ZULEIKHA BY HER NURSE AS TO THE REASON OF HER MELTING AWAY AT THE SIGHT OF THE CANDLE OF JOSEPH'S BEAUTY.

Zuleikha when her nurse saw on this wise,
She asked, while tears were pouring from her eyes:
“O thou from seeing whom my eye has light,
“From whose cheek's image my heart's rose-bed's bright,
“Thy heart is full of pain, thy soul of woe:
“What thy condition is I may not know.
“Ever before thee thus thy soul's desire,
“Why without rest art ever thus on fire?
“What time from thee he still was far away,
“Thou wert excused when thy heart burning lay,
“But since to union with thee near he came,
“Burns thy soul's candle why with such a flame?
“What lover ever with such favour 's graced
“That as slave near him his own love is placed?
“Propitious omen to thee Fortune gave,
“That to thee came thy Sultan as a slave.
“A moon to royal crown that might aspire
“Is in thy hand: what more dost thou require?
“Before his face be happy, glad of heart,
“And let all sorrows of the world depart.
“His cypress tulip-hued thy longing make,
“And in his graceful gait thy comfort take.
“Look on his lip; nourish with him thy soul,
“And hope's pure water drink thou from his bowl.”
When from her nurse Zuleikha heard this thing,
She made her heart's blood of her tears the spring.
From her eye's cloud her heart's blood then was shed,
And her sad story thus it was she said.
Said: “Thou who e'er art as my mother kind,
“Thee skilled in secret things do I not find.
“Dost thou not know what of my heart 's the care,
“From this world's life what I may have to bear?
“He stands to serve before my face, 'tis true,
“But no true service will he ever do.
“Though distant from me he may ne'er remain,
“To look upon me yet he will not deign.
“One should with weeping of the thirsty think,
“On whose lip 's water that they can not drink.
“Like beauty's torch although my face should shine,
“His eyes towards his feet will aye incline.
“'Tis not for this that he my blame should bear,
“His instep than my face is far more fair.
“When him I look on with world-seeing eye,
“Upon his forehead fair a frown will lie.
“Yet for that frown I can not blame him long,
“For what there comes from him can not be wrong.
“His eyebrow in my heart such knots has bound,
“That knotless my affairs are never found.
“Such heavy knots in my affairs it ties,
“I can not gaze upon him with my eyes.
“From speaking to me when his mouth refrains,
“But to drink blood what then for me remains?
“My mouth if from that red lip water flood,
“The water in my eye is turned to blood.
“His form, the plant where all my hope would be,
“But seldom casts a kindly look on me.
“I hope to pluck an apple from that tree;
“The apple brings a hundred woes on me.
“If from his chin's well I should seek relief,
“My place of ease he turns to well of grief.
“That sleeve I ever envy in my breast,
“That it with fraud upon his arm should rest.
“As for his skirt, I hide my torn soul in my breast
“That at his feet before him it in dust should rest.”
And when the nurse had heard these words, she wept
That in such ease she yet alive was kept.
By fate such absence as may be enforced
Union excels whence sweetness is divorced.
The pains of parting are but heavy blows,
And such a union brings two hundred woes.