THE THREE UNFORTUNATE LOVERS.
Quoth Al-'Utbí[FN#190], "I was sitting one day with a company of
educated men, telling stories of the folk, when the talk turned
upon legends of lovers and each of us said his say thereanent.
Now there was in our company an old man, who remained silent,
till all had spoken and had no more to say, when quoth he, 'Shall
I tell you a thing, the like of which you never heard; no,
never?' 'Yes,' quoth we; and he said, 'Know, then, that I had a
daughter, who loved a youth, but we knew it not; while the youth
loved a singing girl, who in her turn loved my daughter. One day,
I was present at an assembly, wherein were also the youth'"--And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
When it was the Four Hundred and Tenth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Shaykh
continued: 'One day, I was present at an assembly wherein were
also the youth and the singing girl and she chanted to us these
couplets,
'Prove how Love bringeth low * Lover those tears that run
Lowering him still the more * When pity finds he none.'
Cried the youth, 'By Allah, thou hast said well, O my mistress.'
Dost thou incite me to die?' Answered the girl from behind the
curtain, 'Yes, if thou be a true lover.' So he laid his head on a
cushion and closed his eyes; and when the cup came round to him,
we shook him and behold, he was dead.[FN#191] Therewith we all
flocked to him, and our pleasure was troubled and we grieved and
broke up at once. When I came home, my people took in bad part my
returning before the appointed time, and I told them what had
befallen the youth, thinking that thereby I should greatly
surprise them. My daughter heard my words and rising, went from
the sitting chamber into another, whither I followed her and
found her lying with her head on a cushion, even as I had told of
the young man. So I shook her and lo! she was dead. Then we laid
her out and set forth next morning to bury her, whilst the
friends of the young man set forth in like guise to bury him. As
we were on the way to the burial place, we met a third funeral
and asking whose it was, were told that it was that of the
singing girl who, hearing of my daughter's death, had done even
as she did and was dead. So we buried them all three on one day,
and this is the rarest tale that ever was heard of lovers." And
they also tell a tale of
