Original content

English translation

A singing slave-girl who was renowned for the beauty of her song and famed for the sweetness of her melody possessed a peerless beauty and a flawless comeliness. One day, in the presence of her master, she was playing an instrument and performing a ghazal.

A young man who held desire for her in his heart and her passion in his head was standing below the balcony, his ear set upon her voice; at the time of her verses he would reflect, and from the pleasure of her melodies he showed his inclination.

Happy is that lovelorn one, deprived of the sight of the beloved, / who from behind the wall of deprivation sets his ear upon her words.

Suddenly the master looked down from the balcony and saw the young man. He called him near and seated him with himself at one table. From every quarter he spoke news with him, and every moment he pierced a pearl of some art with him.

The young man, with a mind free of all else, kept his ear on the master and his eye on the slave-girl. Whatever she asked with a coquettish glance, he answered with his eyebrow; and whatever she knotted with her tress, he loosed with a sweet smile.

What is sweeter than the union of those two lovers, / in spite of enemies, in harmony together; / with one another, telling tales through eye and eyebrow, / seeking a pretext for embrace and kiss.

When the company had gone on for long, the master—as you know—out of the necessity of certain human needs, took his leave and left those two longing, eager ones together. The gathering became empty, and the motives for union followed one upon another from both sides.

The slave-girl opened her tongue and, addressing him, gave this call:

By the God whose servants, openly and secretly, are humankind and jinn, / of everyone I see in the world, you are to me dearer than all.

When the young man heard that point, he cried out:

O you whose dwelling is my eye and heart, / the beauty of all the fair ones of the world is your acquisition. / If my heart inclines toward you, it is no wonder; / stone it is, not a heart, the heart that inclines not toward you.

Once again the slave-girl said: In all the world I have but this one wish, that we put our arms around one another and taste sugar from each other's lips and mouth. The young man said: I too have this wish, but what am I to do?

God the Exalted says: 'Friends on that Day will be enemies to one another, except the righteous' — meaning: on the morrow of Resurrection, the friendship of friends will turn to the color of enmity, save the friendship of the God-fearing, which will only increase in friendship.

I do not want that tomorrow the edifice of our love should fall into ruin and our friendship turn into enmity. This he said, let go the skirt of companionship, and with this song took up the way of departure:

O heart, abandon this two-day love, / for from a two-day love no work comes to pass. / Choose such a love that, on the Day of Reckoning, / with it you may find repose in the Abode of Permanence.