plight, she wept and sighed and recited these couplets,

"How oft bewailing the place shall be this coming and going, *
While the House bemoaneth its builder with tear-flood ever
a-flowing?
Here was bestest joy ere fared my friend with the caravan hieing
* And its dwellers and brightest-suns[FN#358] ne'er ceased
in its walls a-glowing:
Where be those fullest moons that here were always arising? *
Bedimmed them the Shafts of Days their charms of spirit
unknowing:
Leave then what is past of the Fair thou wast ever with love
espying * And look; for haply the days may restore them
without foreshowing:
For hadst thou not been, its dwellers had never departed flying *
Nor haddest thou seen the Crow with ill-omened croak
a-crying."

Masrur wept sore hearing these verses and apprehending their
significance. Now Nasim knew that which was between him and her
sister of love and longing, ecstasy and passion; so she said to
him, "Allah upon thee, O Masrur, away from this house, lest any
see thee and deem thou comest on my account! Indeed thou hast
caused my sister quit it and now thou wouldst drive me also away.
Thou knowest that, but for thee, the house would not now be void
of its dwellers: so be consoled for her loss and leave her: what
is past is past." When he heard this, he wept bitterly and said
to her, "O Nasim, if I could, I should fly for longing after her;
so how can I be comforted for her?" Quoth she, "Thou hast no
device save patience;" and quoth he, "I beseech thee, for Allah's