ABSTRACT
The Old Woman said: When the servant girl had finished her song, the 1 said to
her, “Indeed your heart is cross with your beloved, Oh ” 2 She said, “Indeed it is,
by your life, my Lord!” Then the looked at me and said to me: “Oh, Sister, is not this young woman [slave girl] beautiful?”3 I said, “Indeed she is, and may God make you thrive, my Lord ” Then he called, “Oh, ” and another slave girl approached, with her two breasts appearing [lit., “on her chest”] like a pair of apples of pearl served up on a marble platter, pale-skinned and blonde, and I looked at her legs, and there were on them a pair of golden khƗl-khƗl, inlaid with priceless precious stones. When she walked, the way she moved plundered all rationality, in spite of her few years, with her grace, coquettishness, and perfection. She said, “Here I am, O, my Lord and Master!,” and he said to her, “Call ”
The Old Woman said: And I said to myself, “Oh, dear God!,” then I said,“ are many among the servant girls!” And when presented herself to the and inclined herself before him, she almost broke in two because of the heaviness of her haunches and the firmness of her bosom, and the slenderness of her waist, with the elegance and lightness of her youth. And the saw me looking at her and said to me, “Tell me the truth, is she not beautiful?” And I said to him, “If this one’s not beautiful, then where are grace and beauty to be found?”
