This etext was produced by Pat Castevans <Patcat@ctnet.net>
and David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
By George Meredith
1898/1909
Now, when Shibli Bagarag had ceased speaking, the Vizier smiled gravely,
and shook his beard with satisfaction, and said to the Eclipser of
Reason, 'What opinest thou of this nephew of the barber, O Noorna bin
Noorka?'
She answered, "O Feshnavat, my father, truly I am content with thebargain of my betrothal. He, Wullahy, is a fair youth of flowingspeech.' Then she said, 'Ask thou him what he opineth of me, hisbetrothed?"
So the Vizier put that interrogation to Shibli Bagarag, and the youth wasin perplexity; thinking, 'Is it possible to be joyful in the embrace ofone that hath brought thwackings upon us, serious blows?' Thinking, 'Yethath she, when the mood cometh, kindly looks; and I marked her eyedwelling on me admiringly!' And he thought, 'Mayhap she that growethyounger and counteth nature backwards, hath a history that would affectme; or, it may be, my kisses—wah! I like not to give them, and it issaid,
"Love is wither'd by the withered lip";
and that,
"On bones become too prominent he'll trip."
Yet put the case, that my kisses—I shower them not, Allah the All-seeingis my witness! and they be given daintily as 'twere to the leaf of anettle, or over-hot pilau. Yet haply kisses repeated might restore herto a bloom, and it is certain youth is somehow stolen from her, if theVizier Feshnavat went before her, and his blood be her blood; and he ispowerful, she wise. I'll decide to act the part of a rejoicer,and express of her opinions honeyed to the soul of that sex.'
Now, while he was thus debating he hung his head, and the Vizier awaitedhis response, knitting his brows angrily at the delay, and at the last hecried, 'What! no answer? how 's this? Shall thy like dare hold debatewhen questioned of my like? And is my daughter Noorna bin Noorka,thinkest thou, a slave-girl in the market,—thou haggling at her price,O thou nephew of the barber?'
So Shibli Bagarag exclaimed, 'O exalted one, bestower of the bride!surely I debated with myself but for appropriate terms; and I delayed toselect the metre of the verse fitting my thoughts of her, and my wondrousgood fortune, and the honour done me.'
Then the Vizier, 'Let us hear: we listen.'
And Shibli Bagarag was advised to deal with illustrations in his dilemma,by-ways of expression, and spake in extemporaneous verse, and with a fullvoice:
The pupils of the Sage for living Beauty sought;
And one a Vision clasped, and one a Model wrought.
'I have it!' each exclaimed, and rivalry arose:
'Paint me thy Maid of air!' 'Thy Grace of clay disclose.'
'What! limbs that cannot move!' 'What! lips that melt away!'
'Keep thou thy Maid of air!' 'Shroud up thy Grace of clay!'
'Twas thus, contending hot, they went before the Sage,
And knelt at the wise wells of cold ascetic age.
'The fairest of the twain, O father, thou record':