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THE SECOND SECLUSION

On the revelry of the night

725. One night, the master, desiring the company of his own kind, spent a few moments with some of them.

726. He found a night as beautiful as the dawn, and everything desired was present:

727. An assembly more radiant than the beginning of spring, a joy more tranquil than providence.

728. Yearn thou for a glimpse of its radiance, describing Joseph and his shirt.

(62) 729. The guardian night had destroyed the watchman, and its sweetness was forbidden to flies.

730. The minstrels were wonderful in their melody, the veiled beauties wonderful in their fidelity.

737. The jar was in the hennaed hand of the beloved, pouring wine into crystal cups.

732. The candle of the heart was burning like the heart of a candle; the fire of the heart burnt like the heart of fire.

733. On the tray of the censer which illuminated the assembly, the aloe-wood made sugar, and the sugar consumed the aloe-wood.

734. The rose scattered sugar from rose-water, the candle gold from its wick.

735. To provide the delicious sweetmeats served with the wine, eyes and mouths poured sugar and almonds.

736. Sugar and almonds discoursed of subtleties; Venus and Mars wooed one another.

737 . The promise had reached the ear; laughter begged for nourishment.

738. The beloved, like a leopard, sat on fox furs; the musk of the gazelle was a chain for the lion.

(63) 739. The beloved drew the lover to herself and trailed her skirt on the ground. In her dance, her hands scattered gems.

740. Like the cup-bearer, the candle had a bowl of wine in its hands; the bowl was stained with wine, and the moth was intoxicated.

741. Sleep, like the moth, had shed its wings; the candle had bowed its head in thanksgiving.

742. Chaste Venus was entirely absorbed in playing the right melody.

743. Minds robbed each other of sleep. Lamps borrowed lights from each other.

744. One could find among that company in one instant all that one would find in a whole lifetime.

745. Each moment the heart, the body, and the soul provided food for each other.

746. One would say that, from the room which they had prepared, they had thrown the garment of annihilation into non-existence.

747 .The bird of joy tied the letter to its wing; it broke the seven wings of the bird of the Pleiades.

748. The fire of the bird of dawn, roasting' on the spit, cooled the heart of the beauties.

749. The bird of dawn was in a deeper sleep than one asleep in the early morning. The foot of heaven was tied tighter than the hand of the moon.

(64) 750. The knocker on the door was a barrier against strangers. The tresses of the fairies were the chains of the insane.

751. In the curve of that ring the heart of Jupiter was caught as though in a tight finger-ring.

752. The beauties, like fairies, had raided the hearts of the nobles.

753. They had planted jasmine on the road of the heart; they had collected the thorns with the tips of their eye-lashes.

754. The sugar cane of their cheeks was the fruit of the heart; their tall stature was the rose tree of life.

755. The sugared hazel-nuts and the small almonds had lines like carmine-coloured pistachio-nuts.

756. The magic coquetry and the black mole had wrought a lawful spell by the black eyebrows.

757. The world was constantly bewitched and enslaved by such coquetry and such a beauty spot.

758. After the eyes saw whose beautiful visions, the heart went on pilgrimage to the eves.

759. The tongues of airs and graces were sharper than thorns; the tresses were more entangled than my affairs.

760. When the hand of coquetry held the bow, it hit the mark without shooting the arrow.

761. The spirit of Messiah blew from the breath of the heart, and the water of life poured out from the mouth of the clay.

762. The rose, like the jasmine contained ambergris; the moon, like heaven, carried a saddle-cloth on its shoulders.

763. When the cheeks and the lips of the beloved poured out sugar and almond, the rose fled to get help from the sugar.

(65) 764. Each vision was the life of a world; every eyelash was the temple of the idol of the soul.

765. The black tresses on the white silver scattered musk upon the leaves of the palm willow.

766. Her silvery neck which had a line as clear as water, became a rainbow, in the shining sun.

767. The tresses were Abraham, and the face was his fire; the eyes were Ishmail and the eyelashes his dagger.

768. From these the fire had become a bunch of sweet herbs, and from those the dagger a heart-ravishing narcissus.

769. Like wine, the kisses produced intoxication; like Messiah, the lips gave the breath of life.

770. The perspiration on her cheek was like dew on red and white roses. The harvest of the moon was like the cluster of the Pleiades.

771. The button of the collar of the celestial maiden was loosened; it was as though the line of night had received the decree of the light.

772. The spirit of the high and the heart of the lowly were, by that light, maddened like those in delirium.

773. Her airs and graces were the herald, as her mouth was tired; her eyes spoke, as her tongue was speechless.

774. Wine, like the rose, was the ornament of the empire; the bowl, like the narcissus, was gold in silver.

775. In that circle reason was intoxicated, and in the end it lost patience.

(66) 776. Since laughter had not left room in the mouth, endurance was unable to sigh.

777. Patience had exhausted its melody on that note; the rebellion of the mind had a high note.

778. The rebellion found in the songs of David the story of Mahmud and the tale of Ayaz.

779. The poetry of Nezami scatters sugar and is perpetually on the lips of the beautiful singers of odes.