chanced that the Jew went out on some business so she fared forth
to the first door and wrote thereon these couplets,

"Bear our salams, O Dove, from this our stead * From lover to
beloved far severŠd!
Bid him fro' me ne'er cease to yearn and mourn * O'er happy days
and hours for ever fled:
Eke I in grief shall ever mourn and yearn, * Dwelling on days of
love and lustihead;
Long was our joyance, seeming aye to last, * When night and
morning to reunion led;
Till croaked the Raven[FN#351] of the Wold one day * His cursed
croak and did our union dead.
We sped and left the homestead dark and void * Its gates
unpeopled and its dwellers sped."

Then she went to the second door and wrote thereon these
couplets,

"O who passest this doorway, by Allah, see * The charms of my
fere in the glooms and make plea
For me, saying, 'I think of the Past and weep * Yet boot me no
tears flowing full and free.'
Say, 'An fail thee patience for what befel * Scatter earth and
dust on the head of thee!
And o'er travel lands East and West, and deem * God sufficeth thy
case, so bear patiently!'"

Then she went to the third door and wept sore and thereon wrote
these couplets,