'Life has no sweet for me since forth ye fared; * Would Heaven I wot how fare ye who forsake: 'Twere only fit my tears were tears of blood, * Since you are weeping for mine absence sake.'
But when my lady heard this verse she fell back on the sofa in a swoon,"--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the One Hundred and Fifty-seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the slave-girl continued to Abu al-Hasan, "But when my lady heard this verse, she fell back on the sofa in a swoon, and I seized her hand and sprinkled rose-water on her face, till she revived, when I said to her, 'O my lady, expose not thyself and all thy palace containeth. By the life of thy beloved, be thou patient!' She replied, 'Can aught befal
