Allah rend her veil! This is my parting counsel; and I have not
charged thee with this charge, but because I know[FN#6] that
after my death the world will be straitened on thee and, haply,
by reason of this, thou wilt leave thy native land and wander in
foreign parts, and hearing of her who wrought these figures, thou
mayest be minded to fore gather with her. Then wilt thou
remember me, when the memory shall not avail thee; nor wilt thou
know my worth till after my death. And, lastly, learn that she
who wrought the gazelles is the daughter of the King of the
Camphor Islands and a lady of the noblest." Now when I had read
that scroll and understood what was written therein, I fell again
to weeping, and my mother wept because I wept, and I ceased not
to gaze upon it and to shed tears till night fall. I abode in
this condition a whole year, at the end of which the merchants,
with whom I am in this cafilah, prepared to set out from my
native town; and my mother counseled me to equip myself and
journey with them, so haply I might be consoled and my sorrow be
dispelled, saying, "Take comfort and put away from thee this
mourning and travel for a year or two or three, till the caravan
return, when perhaps thy breast may be broadened and thy heart
heartened." And she ceased not to persuade me with endearing
words, till I provided myself with merchandise and set out with
the caravan. But all the time of my wayfaring, my tears have
never dried; no, never! and at every halting place where we
halt, I open this piece of linen and look on these gazelles and
call to mind my cousin Azizah and weep for her as thou hast seen;
for indeed she loved me with dearest love and died, oppressed by
my unlove. I did her nought but ill and she did me nought but
good. When these merchants return from their journey, I shall
return with them, by which time I shall have been absent a whole