and my desires my reason still gainsay. 
My transports I conceal for fear of those thereon that spy; Yet
     down my cheeks the tears course still and still my case
     bewray. 
No rest is there for me, no life wherein I may delight, Nor
     pleasant meat nor drink avails to please me, night or day. 
To whom save thee shall I complain, of whom relief implore, Whose
     image came to visit me, what while in dreams I lay? 
Reproach me not for what I did, but be thou kind to one Who’s
     sick of body and whose heart is wasted all away. 
The fire of love-longing I hide; severance consumeth me, A thrall
     of care, for long desire to wakefulness a prey. 
Midmost the watches of the night I see thee, in a dream; A lying
     dream, for he I love my love doth not repay. 
Would God thou knewest that for love of thee which I endure!  It
     hath indeed brought down on me estrangement and dismay. 
Read thou my writ and apprehend its purport, for my case This is
     and fate hath stricken me with sorrows past allay. 
Know, then, the woes that have befall’n a lover, neither grudge
     Her secret to conceal, but keep her counsel still, I pray.

Then she folded the letter and giving it to her slave-girl, bade her carry it to El Abbas and bring back his answer thereto.  Accordingly, Shefikeh took the letter and carried it to the prince, after the doorkeeper had sought leave of him to admit her.  When she came in to him, she found with him five damsels, as they were moons, clad in [rich] apparel and ornaments; and when he saw her, he said to her, “What is thine occasion, O handmaid of good?” So she put out her hand to him with the letter, after she had kissed it, and he bade one of his slave-girls receive it from her.  Then he took it from the girl and breaking it open, read it and apprehended its purport; whereupon “We are God’s and to Him we return!” exclaimed he and calling for ink- horn and paper, wrote the following verses: 

I marvel for that to my love I see thee now incline, What time my
     heart, indeed, is fain to turn away from thine. 
Whilere, the verses that I made it was thy wont to flout, Saying,
     “No passer by the way[FN#105] hath part in me or mine. 
How many a king to me hath come, of troops and guards ensued, And
     Bactrian camels brought with him, in many a laden line,
And dromedaries, too, of price and goodly steeds and swift Of
     many a noble breed, yet found no favour in my eyne!”
Then, after them came I to thee and union did entreat And unto
     thee set forth at length my case and my design;
Yea, all my passion and desire and love-longing in verse, As
     pearls in goodly order strung it were, I did enshrine. 
Yet thou repaidst me with constraint, rigour and perfidy, To
     which no lover might himself on any wise resign. 
How many a bidder unto love, a secret-craving wight,