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98 THE TAHJUMAX AL-ASHWAQ (X X V )

3. 0 musk ! O full moon ! 0 bough of tho smicl-liills ! How
green is the bough, how bright the moon, how sweet
the musk !
4. O smiling mouth whose bubbles I loved ! and O saliva in
which I tasted white honey !
5. O moon that appeared to us veiled in a red blush of shame
upon thy cheek^!
6. Had she i-emoved her veil, it would have been a torment,
and on this account she veiled herself.
7. She is the m o r n i n g sun riS 'in g in a heaven, she is the
bough of the sand-hills planted in a garden.
8. Fear made me watch her incessantly while I watered the
bough with falling rain.
9. If she riseth, .she will be a wonder to mine eye, or if she
setteth she will be a cause of my death.
10. Since Beauty bound on her head a diadem of unwrought
gold, I am in love with gold that has been wrought.
11. If Iblis had seen in Adam the brilliance of her face, he
would not have refused to wor.ship him.
12. If Idris had seen the lines that Beauty limned on her
cheeks, then he would never have written.
13. If Bilqis had seen her couch, the throne and the pavement
would not have occurred to her mind.
14. O sarh tree of the valley and O hAn ti-ee of the thicket,
deliver to us of your perfume, by means of the
zephyr,
15. A musky odour which exhales its fragrance to us froni
IG. O han tree of the valley, show us a branch or some twigs
the flowers of thy lowlands or the flowers of the hills.

that can be compared with her tenderness !
17. The zephyr’s breeze tells of the time of youth spent at
Hiljir or Mina or Quba,
18. Or at the sand-hills and where the vale bends beside the
guarded pasture or at La‘la‘, where the gazelles come
to browse.
19. Do not wonder, do not wonder, do not wonder at an
Arab passionately fond of the coy beauties,