We may also compare the two renderings of that exquisite and tender little poem “Azizeh’s Tomb"[FN#462] which will be found in the “Tale of Aziz and Azizeh.”

         Payne Burton

I passed by a ruined tomb in the I past by a broken tomb amid
  midst of a garden way, Upon a garth right sheen, Whereon
  whose letterless stone seven on seven blooms of Nu’aman
  blood-red anemones lay. glowed with cramoisie.

“Who sleeps in this unmarked Quoth I, “Who sleepeth in this
  grave?” I said, and the tomb?” Quoth answering
  earth, “Bend low; For a earth, “Before a lover
  lover lies here and waits for Hades-tombed bend reverently.”
  the Resurrection Day.”

“God keep thee, O victim of Quoth I, “May Allah help thee,
  love!” I cried, “and bring O thou slain of love, And
  thee to dwell In the highest grant thee home in heaven
  of all the heavens of Paradise, and Paradise-height to see! 
  I pray!

“How wretched are lovers all, “Hapless are lovers all e’en
  even in the sepulchre, tombed in their tombs,
  For their very tombs are Where amid living folk the
  covered with ruin and decay! dust weighs heavily!

“Lo! if I might, I would plant “Fain would I plant a garden
  thee a garden round about, blooming round thy grave
  and with my streaming tears And water every flower with
  the thirst of its flowers tear-drops flowing
  allay!” free!"[FN#463]

136.  The Summing Up.

The reader will notice from these citations: 

(1) That, as we have already said, and as Burton himself partly admitted, Burton’s translation is largely a paraphrase of Payne’s.  This is particularly noticeable in the latter half of the Nights.  He takes hundreds—­nay thousands—­of sentences and phrases from Payne, often without altering a single word.[FN#464] If it be urged that Burton was quite capable of translating the Nights without drawing upon the work of another, we must say that we deeply regret that he allowed the opportunity to pass, for he had a certain rugged strength of style, as the best passages in his Mecca and other books show.  In order to ensure originality he ought to have translated every sentence before looking to see how Payne put it, but the temptation was too great for a very busy man—­a man with a hundred irons in the fire—­and he fell.[FN#465]

(2) That, where there are differences, Payne’s translation is invariably the clearer, finer and more stately of the two.  Payne is concise, Burton diffuse.[FN#466]