me * with some words of thine * that I may cheer my heart in pain and repine * Moreover, I would have thee put on a patience lief, until Allah vouchsafe relief * And His peace be with thee."[FN#202] When Ali bin Bakkar had read this letter he said in weak accents and feeble voice, “With what hand shall I write and with what tongue shall I make moan and lament?  Indeed she addeth sickness to my sickness and draweth death upon my death!” Then he sat up and taking in hand ink-case and paper, wrote the following reply, “In the name of Allah, the Compassionating, the Compassionate![FN#203] Thy letter hath reached me, O my lady, and hath given ease to a sprite worn out with passion and love-longing, and hath brought healing to a wounded heart cankered with languishment and sickness; for indeed I am become even as saith the poet,

     ’Straitened bosom; reveries dispread; *
          Slumberless eyelids; body wearied;
     Patience cut short; disunion longsomest; *
          Reason deranged and heart whose life is fled!’

And know that complaining is unavailing; but it easeth him whom love-longing disordereth and separation destroyeth and, with repeating, ‘Union,’ I keep myself comforted and how fine is the saying of the poet who said,

     ’Did not in love-plight joys and sorrows meet, *
          How would the message or the writ be sweet?’”

When he had made an end of this letter, he handed it to Abu al-Hasan, saying, “Read it and give it to the damsel.”  So he took it and read it and its words stirred his soul and its meaning wounded his vitals.  Then he committed it to the girl, and when she took it Ali bin Bakkar said to her, “Salute thy lady for me and acquaint her with my love and longing and how passion is blended with my flesh and my bones; and say to her that in very deed I need a woman who shall snatch me from the sea of destruction and save me from this dilemma; for of a truth Fortune oppresseth me with her vicissitudes; and is there any helper to free me from her turpitudes?” And he wept and the damsel wept for his weeping.  Then she took leave of him and went forth and Abu al-Hasan went out with her and farewelled her.  So she ganged her gait and he returned to his shop, which he opened and sat down there, as was his wont;—­And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

       When it was the One Hundred and Fifty-ninth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Abu al-Hasan farewelled the slave-girl and returned to his shop which he opened and sat down there according to his custom; but as he tarried, he found his heart oppressed and his breast straitened, and he was perplexed about his case.  So he ceased not from melancholy the rest of that day and night, and on the morrow he betook himself to Ali bin Bakkar, with whom he sat till the folk withdrew, when he asked him how he did.  Ali began to complain of desire and to descant upon the longing and distraction which possessed him, and repeated these words of the poet.