[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.