Repentance.

Wonderful is it how in this old blue-canopied Pavilion
The race of Adam is so wanting in consideration!
Its habit is not recognition of benefits,
Its nature it is to know nothing but unthankfulness:
Although he hath passed a life of prosperity,
He acknowledgeth not its value till it remaineth no longer.
Many is the lover who scoffeth at separation,
Believing that he hath tasted of love to satiety,
But as soon as Destiny hath kindled the fire of separation,
His body dwindleth away like a taper, and his soul is consumed in the glow.
 
Whilst the prison became to the captives in the prison
A rose-garden from the presence of that smiling rosebud,
Zulaikha whose dwelling that incomparable cypress
Had rendered gayer even than than the rose-garden,
Found, when the cypress had vanished from the garden,
The garden itself darker than the prison:
She too in heart became a captive in its hold,
And in the separation her affliction was doubled.
 
For what affliction can be worse than his,
Who see’th the place of the charmer deprived of the charmer!
What comfort is left in that bower of roses,
When the rose is departed, and the thorn only remaineth!
The spine of the thorn in a rose-bower without roses
Can be followed only by the wail of the nightingale!

Deprived of the sight of the beloved object, Zulaikha abandons herself to utter despair, and at­tempts to destroy herself. The Nurse affectionately interposes with tender endearments and exhortations to patience, which are received as such counsels usually are.

Then the Nurse kissed her hands and her feet,
And from the bottom of her heart pronounced a blessing:
“Mayest thou be set free from the pangs of separation;
May nothing remind thee of separation more!
Bethink thee!—how long wilt thou lose thy self-possession?
Resume thy reason!—how long wilt thou be unwise?
My sorrow for thee filleth my heart with blood;
Who hath ever done as thou doest now?
Listen to me, for I am old in experience,
Endurance only can order such matters as this:
By impatience hast thou fallen into this fire and fever,
Pour water on the flame from the cloud of patience.
When the rough wind of calamity bloweth on thine head,
Thou shouldst not like a straw fly before it;
Better draw thy foot within thy skirt,
And remain like the mountain rooted in thy place.
Patience bringeth with it the fruit of hope;
Patience bringeth with it the happiness of perpetuity;
Patience layeth the foundation of victory,
Is the firmest step for mounting to felicity;
By patience the rain-drop in the shell becometh a pearl;
By patience the mine is filled with gems and rubies;
By patience the ear of corn cometh from the seed,
And from the ear of corn the grain which nourisheth the life;
By patience of nine months an atom in the womb
Becometh a moon to irradiate the world.”
 
The perturbed heart and soul of Zulaikha
Were soothed by the words which fell from the Nurse;
In garments rent from the collar to the skirt,
She drew her slipper in patience within its border;
But the patience which the lover seemeth to exert,
Whilst the wise counsellor is uttering his words,
As soon as his counsels sink into silence,
Endeth, and the lover forgetteth every letter.