Tales from the Arabic — Complete eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 791 pages of information about Tales from the Arabic — Complete.

Tales from the Arabic — Complete eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 791 pages of information about Tales from the Arabic — Complete.

[FN#105] Lit. none of the sons of the road.

[FN#106] i.e. the stars.

[FN#107] i.e. in falsetto?

[FN#108] by thine absence.

[FN#109] Common abbreviation for “May I be thy ransom!”

[FN#110] i.e. for love of and longing for.

[FN#111] i.e. leather from Et Taif, a town of the Hejaz, renowned for the manufacture of scented goats’ leather.

[FN#112] Or “suspended in.”

[FN#113] i.e. violateth my privacy.

[FN#114] i.e. the plaintive song of a nightingale or turtle-dove.

[FN#115] This curious comparison appears to be founded upon the extreme tenuity of the particles of fine dust, so minutely divided as to seem almost fluid.

[FN#116] i.e. he carried it into the convent, hidden under his cloak.

[FN#117] i.e. all the delights of Paradise, as promised to the believer by the Koran.

[FN#118] “Him” in the text and so on throughout the piece; but Mariyeh is evidently the person alluded to, according to the common practice of Muslim poets of a certain class, who consider it indecent openly to mention a woman as an object of love.

[FN#119] i.e. from the witchery of her beauty.  See Vol.  II. p. 240, note.

[FN#120] Lit “if thou kohl thyself” i.e. use them as a cosmetic for the eye.

[FN#121] i.e. we will assume thy debts and responsibilities.

[FN#122] Lit “behind.”

[FN#123] i.e. a specially auspicious hour, as ascertained by astrological calculations.  Eastern peoples have always laid great stress upon the necessity of commencing all important undertakings at an (astrologically) favourable time.

[FN#124] Or “more valuable.”  Red camels are considered better than those of other colours by some of the Arabs.

[FN#125] i.e. couriers mounted on dromedaries, which animals are commonly used for this purpose, being (for long distances) swifter and more enduring than horses.

[FN#126] Lit. he sinned against himself.

[FN#127] i.e. in falsetto?

[FN#128] i.e. of gold or rare wood, set with balass rubies.

[FN#129] i.e. whose absence.

[FN#130] i.e. in a throat voice?

[FN#131] Koranic synonym, victual (rihan).  See Vol.  II. p. 247, note.

[FN#132] Apparently, the apple of the throat.

[FN#133] Apparently, the belly.

[FN#134] Apparently, the bosom.

[FN#135] Cf.  Fletcher’s well-known song in The Bloody Brother;

     “Hide, O hide those hills of snow,
        That thy frozen bosom bears,
     On Whose Tops the Pinks That Grow
        Are of those that April wears.”

[FN#136] i.e. the breasts themselves.

[FN#137] i.e. your languishing beauties are alone present to my mind’s eye.  A drowsy voluptuous air of languishment is considered by the Arabs an especial charm.

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Tales from the Arabic — Complete from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.