CXII
In Praise of Her Beauty
He
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Soft art thou, O blest anitcha flower! but tenderer than thyself is she on whom my heart is set.
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Thou becomest distracted whenever thou seest a flower, O my Heart! Thou thinkest that the flowers that look on all men can resemble her eye!
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Her arm is as the bamboo; her body is as the tender leaf; her smile is a very pearl; the sweetest of odours is in her breath; and her eye is piercing as the lance.
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The sky-blue flower despaireth of ever equalling her eye in beauty, and droopeth down its head whenever it looketh on her.
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She hath adorned herself with anitcha flowers but hath not removed the stems from among them: alack! her waist will be crushed beneath the weight and will presently break!
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The stars of the heavens wander from their spheres for that they cannot tell which is the moon and which her face.
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But is there a spot in the face of this fair one even as in the moon which hath rounded up only today its deformities of yesterday?
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Bless thee, O Moon! If thou canst shine like the face of this lovely one, I shall love thee in very truth.
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If thou want, O Moon, to emulate the face of her whose eyes are like flowers, show not thyself unto all but shine alone for me.
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Even the anitcha flower and swan’s down are as nettle to the feet of this fair one.