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I pray you give him our greetings in pure and fragrant form,
For he indeed may never know where we this eve shall lie.
I know not where they have traveled, bearing us so far away
At speed, and lightly equipped, the more easily to fly from one love:
When night grows dark, the birds perched snugly in thicket or branches
Wail for our sorrow and announce our unhappy destiny:
The voice of their condition says, “Alas, alas for woe,
And the heavy blow of parting two lovers must endure original: "aby," meaning to pay the penalty for or suffer.”:
When I saw the cups of separation were filled to the brim
And Fate came so fast to serve us with the wine of pure sorrow,
I mixed them with a proper share of patience to excuse myself,
But Patience refuses her comfort for the loss of you.
Now when she finished her lines, she mounted her horse and they set forward with her, crossing through wilderness and wild land, cheerful valleys and rugged hills, until they came to the shore of the Sea of Treasures. There they pitched their tents and built a large ship, in which she and her attendants boarded; they carried them over to the mountain. The Minister The Wazir. had ordered them that, upon reaching the journey's end, they were to place her in the castle and return to the shore, where they were to destroy the vessel. So they did as he commanded and returned home, weeping over what had happened.
Such was their case; but as for Uns al-Wujud, he awoke from sleep and performed the dawn prayer, after which he took his horse and rode out to attend to the Sultan. On his way, he passed by the Wazir's house, thinking perhaps to see some of his servants as he usually did; but he saw no one. Looking at the door, he read the verses written there. At this sight, his senses failed him; a fire was kindled in his heart, and he returned to his lodgings, where he spent the day in trouble and fits of grief. He found neither ease nor patience until night fell upon him, when his yearning and love-longing intensified.
Consequently, to keep his movements secret, he disguised himself in the ragged clothes of a Fakir,A religious beggar (literally a "pauper"). Burton notes two main types: the Shara’i, who follow religious law, and the La Shara’i, who do not and are often seen as scoundrels. and set out wandering aimlessly through the darkness of night, distracted and not knowing where he was going. He wandered all that night and the next day until the heat of the sun grew fierce and the mountains burned like fire, and he was overwhelmed by thirst. Eventually, he spotted a tree with a thin stream of running water beside it; so he went toward it and, sitting down in the shade on the bank of the stream, attempted