A Perilous Tryst
With many a spotless virgin, whose tent had not yet been frequented, have I held soft dalliance at perfect leisure.
To visit one of them, I passed the guards of her bower, and a hostile tribe, who would have been eager to proclaim my death.
It was the hour when the Pleiads appear in the firmament like the folds of a silken sash variously decked with gems.
I approached: she stood by the curtain; and as if preparing for sleep, had put off all her vesture but her nightdress.
«By Him who created me,» she said, and gave me her lovely hand, «I am unable to refuse thee; for I perceive the blindness of thy passion is not to be removed.»
Then I rose with her; and as we walked, she drew over our footsteps the train of her pictured robe.
As soon as we had passed the habitations of her tribe, and come to the bosom of a vale, surrounded by hillocks of spiry sand,
I gently drew her toward me by her curled locks, and she softly inclined to my embrace; her waist was gracefully slender, and its swelling was encircled with ornaments of gold.
Delicate was her shape; fair her skin; her body well-proportioned; her bosom was as smooth as a mirror,
Or like the pure egg of an ostrich, of yellowish tint blended with white, and nourished by a wholesome stream not yet disturbed.
She turned aside and displayed her soft cheek; she gave a timid glance with languishing eyes like those of a roe looking tenderly at her young.
Her neck was like that of a milk-white hind, but when she raised it, exceeded not the justest symmetry; nor was the neck of my beloved so unadorned.
Her long black hair decorated her back, thick and diffused, like bunches of dates clustering on the palm-tree.
Her locks were elegantly turned above her head; and the riband which bound them was lost in her tresses, part braided, part disheveled.
She discovered a waist taper as a well-twisted cord; and a leg white and smooth as the stem of a young palm, or a fresh reed, bending over a rivulet.
The brightness of her face illumined the veil of night, like the evening taper of a recluse hermit.
On a girl like her, a girl of moderate height, between those who wear a frock and those who wear a gown, the most bashful man must look with an enamored eye.
To visit one of them, I passed the guards of her bower, and a hostile tribe, who would have been eager to proclaim my death.
It was the hour when the Pleiads appear in the firmament like the folds of a silken sash variously decked with gems.
I approached: she stood by the curtain; and as if preparing for sleep, had put off all her vesture but her nightdress.
«By Him who created me,» she said, and gave me her lovely hand, «I am unable to refuse thee; for I perceive the blindness of thy passion is not to be removed.»
Then I rose with her; and as we walked, she drew over our footsteps the train of her pictured robe.
As soon as we had passed the habitations of her tribe, and come to the bosom of a vale, surrounded by hillocks of spiry sand,
I gently drew her toward me by her curled locks, and she softly inclined to my embrace; her waist was gracefully slender, and its swelling was encircled with ornaments of gold.
Delicate was her shape; fair her skin; her body well-proportioned; her bosom was as smooth as a mirror,
Or like the pure egg of an ostrich, of yellowish tint blended with white, and nourished by a wholesome stream not yet disturbed.
She turned aside and displayed her soft cheek; she gave a timid glance with languishing eyes like those of a roe looking tenderly at her young.
Her neck was like that of a milk-white hind, but when she raised it, exceeded not the justest symmetry; nor was the neck of my beloved so unadorned.
Her long black hair decorated her back, thick and diffused, like bunches of dates clustering on the palm-tree.
Her locks were elegantly turned above her head; and the riband which bound them was lost in her tresses, part braided, part disheveled.
She discovered a waist taper as a well-twisted cord; and a leg white and smooth as the stem of a young palm, or a fresh reed, bending over a rivulet.
The brightness of her face illumined the veil of night, like the evening taper of a recluse hermit.
On a girl like her, a girl of moderate height, between those who wear a frock and those who wear a gown, the most bashful man must look with an enamored eye.
Translation:
Language:
Reviews
No reviews yet.