Now the merchant’s wife aforesaid, who was the nurse of the king’s daughter, was watching him from a window, unknown of him, and [when she heard his verses], she knew that there hung some rare story by him; so she went in to him and said, “Peace be on thee, O afflicted one, who acquaintest not physician with thy case!  Verily, thou exposest thyself unto grievous peril!  I conjure thee by the virtue of Him who hath afflicted thee and stricken thee with the constraint of love-liking, that thou acquaint me with thine affair and discover to me the truth of thy secret; for that indeed I have heard from thee verses that trouble the wit and dissolve the body.”  So he acquainted her with his case and enjoined her to secrecy, whereof she consented unto him, saying, “What shall be the recompense of whoso goeth with thy letter and bringeth thee an answer thereto?” He bowed his head for shamefastness before her [and was silent]; and she said to him, “Raise thy head and give me thy letter.”  So he gave her the letter and she took it and carrying it to the princess, said to her, “Read this letter and give me the answer thereto.”

Now the liefest of all things to Mariyeh was the recitation of poems and verses and linked rhymes and the twanging [of the strings of the lute], and she was versed in all tongues; so she took the letter and opening it, read that which was therein and apprehended its purport.  Then she cast it on the ground and said, “O nurse, I have no answer to make to this letter.”  Quoth the nurse, “Indeed, this is weakness in thee and a reproach unto thee, for that the people of the world have heard of thee and still praise thee for keenness of wit and apprehension; so do thou return him an answer, such as shall delude his heart and weary his soul.”  “O nurse,” rejoined the princess, “who is this that presumeth upon me with this letter?  Belike he is the stranger youth who gave my father the rubies.”  “It is himself,” answered the woman, and Mariyeh said, “I will answer his letter on such a wise that thou shalt not bring me other than it [from him].”  Quoth the nurse, “So be it.”  So the princess called for inkhorn and paper and wrote the following verses: 

O’erbold art thou in that to me, a stranger, thou hast sent These
     verses; ’twill but add to thee unease and miscontent. 
Now God forbid thou shouldst attain thy wishes!  What care I If
     thou have looked on me a look that caused thee languishment? 
Who art thou, wretch, that thou shouldst hope to win me?  With thy
     rhymes What wouldst of me?  Thy reason, sure, with passion is
     forspent. 
If to my favours thou aspire and covet me, good lack!  What leach
     such madness can assain or what medicament? 
Leave rhyming, madman that thou art, lest, bound upon the cross,
     Thou thy presumption in the stead of abjectness repent. 
Deem not, O youth, that I to thee incline; indeed, no part Have I
     in those who walk the