" Then I came back and sat down
in my place, whilst the damsel sang the following verses to a
pleasing air:
Say thou unto the she-gazelle, who yet is no gazelle, And the
wild heifer, languorous-eyed, who yet no heifer is,
"One, who in dalliance affects the male, no female is, And he
who is effeminate of step's no male, ywis."
She sang it excellent well, and the company drank and her song
pleased them. Then she sang various songs to rare tunes, and
amongst the rest one of mine, to the following words:
The pleasant girls have gone and left The homesteads empty and
bereft
Of their sweet converse, after cheer, All void and ruined by
Time's theft.
She sang this even better than the first; then she sang other
rare songs, old and new, and amongst them, another of mine,
with the following words:
To the loved one, who turneth in anger away And vrithdraweth
himself far apart from thee, say,
"The mischief thou wroughtest, thou wroughtest indeed, For all,
per-adventure, thou west but in play."
I asked her to repeat the song, that I might correct it for
her; whereupon one of the men turned to me and said, "Never saw
I a more brazen-faced parasite than thou.
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