3.12.6
“If, however, the lover experiences toil and trouble after his departure, he’ll say, ‘Alas! Alack! Too bad! Dear me! Oh woe! Oh gee! Now I live a life that’s dour, I’m lonely and my heart is sore. I agreed with my friend that we’d be partners for better or for worse, through thick and through thin, but now, I think, he lives cushioned and cosseted, lodged in luxury’s lap, petted and posseted, on an even keel and relieved of all loads, riding on the flat on the straightest of roads, partying by night with crafty sophisticates, hanging out by day with clever profligates. I can see him (meaning her)128 now, smiling a smile of consent and admiration at someone who, having praised her charms and beauty, is telling her, “I wish you would obtain an amulet, to protect you from envious eyes! If it were up to me, I would allow no one to look upon this radiant, effulgent face, for there would be nothing strange if someone afflicted with an ugly wife were to gulp back tears over you, for the envious eye is a reality, and your beauty is unique.” What could her response to him possibly be other than to tell him, “How excellent your eyes, for they see things as they are! My husband’s, on the other hand, are covered with a film and he belongs to that evil school of thought that says, ‘If the eye becomes familiar with something, no matter how outstanding its beauty, the soul desires it less,’ or, as the common people say, ‘What the hand holds, the soul renounces.’ Yet I fear that if you look at me too much and grow too close to me, you’ll quickly join his school and see me as something other than what I am now.”
3.12.7
“‘To this he will reply, “I seek refuge with God! Such is the talk of the ignorant. Those such as I (and how few we are!) who are honest in their love ever take as their example the words of Abū Nuwās, to wit,
Her face appears more lovely to you
The more you gaze upon it.
“‘“As God — and His favored angels, prophets, and honored messengers — is my witness (and what better witness than He!), should you live with me your whole life long, my eye will never find any more comely than you!” Then she’ll say to him, “Men are ever thus: they flatter a woman so that they may seduce her and traduce her. One time they say to her, ‘Blessed be the Creator!’ another, ‘I would give my life for the shy gazelle!’ and a third, ‘Happy is he to whom you belong!’ or ‘Fortunate the one who sees your phantom in his sleep!’ Sometimes they look at her, their eyes brimming with tears, sometimes they sigh and sob — and all this so that they may have their way with her once or twice, after which they set her aside and bruit her secret far and wide. That’s why we’re on our guard when you’re about, for we know you all, inside out.” To this he’ll respond, “God forbid! God forfend! God forgive you! My way’s not that of the hypocritical flatterer, my nature not that of the adulterer. On the contrary, my tongue is inadequate to express the love for you that my heart enfolds and mind holds. Would that I knew a language by which I could express how excessive are my passion and my longing for you! Could you but see my conscience, you would believe me and know that I am like no other man and that my devotion is above all others. Keep company with me for but a little longer, even without consummation, so you may be sure of the truth of my words.” To which she will reply, in full cry now and molars ground to a powder, “And what good would that do? A woman is not a star whose rising and setting are to be observed, nor a flash of lightning to be watched to see whether it will bring rain or is only an empty promise, nor is she a riddle to be solved or guessed at. She doesn’t care whether she is more beautiful than other women. All she cares about is being the most desirable and attractive to men, and attractiveness depends less on physical beauty than on excellence of personal traits, quickness of wit, humor, ability to entertain, sensuality, coquetry, brilliance of smile, slyness of glance, hesitancy, seductiveness of eye, delicacy of walk, and willowiness.” Says he, “How true! Glory to Him who has gathered all these praiseworthy traits together in your own unique self! Everything about you is desirable and everything in me desires.” She then tells him, her face now beaming with pride and admiration, “They say the lover’s pulse races. Let me feel yours, to know whether what you say is true,” at which he tells her, “Yes, yes! Take my hand and feel the pulse, and place your other hand upon my heart!” which she does. Next he says, “Let me do with you as you have done with me, so that the truth may be clear to each of us.” On hearing him say, “Let me do with you,” she is sent into a tizzy, blushes, and her pulse consequently races. Then she quiets down and extends to him her hand and he takes hold of it with one of his, places the other on her heart, moves it upward a little, eyelids reddening and tongue lolling, heaves a long sigh, and says,
God bless you for a red euphorbia berry that my hand has cupped
And whose holder is as one who holds the terrestrial sphere!
For its calyx I’d give the pupil of my eye as ransom
Along with all the goods and chattels I hold dear!
3.12.8
“‘She (all tickled up) then says, “But the veins in which one’s blood pulses are not only in one’s hand and one’s heart; they are in all one’s members, which means that we ought to feel every member we have to find out which of us is the more charged, the more shaken, the more disturbed, the more pulsating, the more simmering, the more throbbing, the more constricted, and the more bursting at the veins, since it is incorrect to pass judgment on anything without first subjecting it to thorough investigation and examination.” And he (ecstatic by now with passion and joy) says, “What truly truly truly excellent words you have spoken! At the same time, though, given that a person, while unaware of his own condition, may find it natural to notice in another what he does not in himself, this examination ought to be reciprocal, or in other words…” and here she interrupts him, saying, “I take your meaning, which is self-evident and calls for no explanation, and is just what I was going to say myself. So give me your hand and take mine”—and so it continues until their hands have roamed all over, groping and grasping, swiping and wiping, searching and seeking, poking and stroking, squeezing and teasing, clasping and parting, slapping and tickling, rooting and rummaging, delving and digging, rubbing and pinching. She (throbbing as never before) now says, “Come closer! Come closer! What you said has, for both cases, proven to be true” and he says to her, “May your wishes be granted and your efforts aided! How often have I raised my arms in prayer that I might hear this call reanimating, this tune intoxicating…!”