of fairest phantom come in peace to visit me:
Say me, can dreams declare the truth anent the maid I love, * And
quench the fires of thirst and heal my love-sick malady?
Anon to me she is liberal and she strains me to her breast; *
Anon she soothes mine anxious heart with sweetest
pleasantry:
From off her dark-red damask lips the dew I wont to sip * The
fine old wine that seemed to reek of musk's perfumery.
I wondered at the wondrous things between us done in dreams, *
And won my wish and all my will of things I hoped to see;
And from that dreamery I rose, yet ne'er could hope to find *
Trace of my phantom save my pain and fiery misery:
And when I looked on her a-morn, 'twas as a lover mad * And every
eve was drunken yet no wine brought jollity.
O breathings of the northern breeze, by Allah fro' me bear *
Them-wards the greetings of my love and best salams that be:
Say them, 'The wight with whom ye made that plight of fealty *
Time with his changes made him drain Death's cup and slain
is he!'"

Then he went out and ceased not to weep till he came to her house
and looking on it, saw it empty and void. Presently, it seemed to
him he beheld her form before him, whereupon fires flamed in him
and his griefs redoubled and he fell down aswoon;--And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

When it was the Eight Hundred and Fifty-sixth Night,

She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when
Masrur saw the vision of Zayn al-Mawasif and felt her embrace, he