Fair patience use, for ease still followeth after stress And all
things have their time and ordinance no less.
Though Fortune whiles to thee belike may be unjust, Her seasons
change and man's excused if he transgress.
In her revolving scheme, to bitter sweetness still Succeeds and
things become straight, after crookedness.
Thine honour, therefore, guard and eke thy secret keep, Nor save
to one free-born and true thy case confess.
The Lord's alternatives are these, wherewith He's wont The needy
wretch to ply and those in sore duresse.

When El Abbas heard her verses, they pleased him and he said to
her, "Well done, O Sitt el Husn! Indeed, thou hast done away
trouble from my heart and [banished] the things that had occurred
to my mind." Then he heaved a sigh and signing to the fifth
damsel, who was from the land of the Persians and whose name was
Merziyeh (now she was the fairest of them all and the sweetest of
speech and she was like unto a splendid star, endowed with beauty
and loveliness and brightness and perfection and justness of
shape and symmetry and had a face like the new moon and eyes as
they were gazelle's eyes) and said to her, "O Merziyeh, come
forward and tune thy lute and sing to us on the [same] subject,
for indeed we are resolved upon departure to the land of Yemen."
Now this damsel had met many kings and had consorted with the
great; so she tuned her lute and sang the following verses:

May the place of my session ne'er lack thee I Oh, why, My heart's
love, hast thou saddened my mind and mine eye?[FN#108]
By thy ransom,[FN#109] who dwellest alone in my heart, In despair
for the loss of the loved one am I.