Страница 334 из 1116

I could not bear to stand listening to her cries and groans; so I

climbed the stair on the quake with fear; and when I reached the

top I replaced the trap door and covered it with earth. Then

repented I of what I had done with penitence exceeding; and

thought of the lady and her beauty and loveliness, and the

tortures she was suffering at the hands of the accursed Ifrit,

after her quiet life of five and twenty years; and how all that

had happened to her was for the cause of me. I bethought me of my

father and his kingly estate and how I had become a woodcutter;

and how, after my time had been awhile serene, the world had

again waxed turbid and troubled to me. So I wept bitterly and

repeated this couplet:-

What time Fate's tyranny shall most oppress thee * Perpend! one

day shall joy thee, one distress thee!