Story 

  It is related that an old man, having married a girl, was sitting

with her privately in an apartment adorned with roses, fixing his eyes

and heart upon her. He did not sleep during long nights but spent them

in telling her jokes and witty stories, hoping to gain her affection

and to conquer her shyness. One night, however, he informed her that

luck had been friendly to her and the eye of fortune awake because she

had become the companion of an old man who is ripe, educated,

experienced in the world, of a quiet disposition, who had felt cold

and warm, had tried good and bad, who knows the diities of

companionship, is ready to fulfil the conditions of love, is

benevolent, kind, good-natured and sweet-tongued.

        As far as I am able I shall hold thy heart

        And if injured I shall not injure in return.

        Though sugar may be thy food as of a parrot

        I shall sacrifice sweet life to thy support.

  Thou hast not fallen into the hands of a giddy youth, fun of

whims, headstrong, fickle minded, running about every moment in search

of another pleasure and entertaining another opinion, sleeping every

night in another place and taking every day another friend.

        Young men are joyous and of handsome countenance

        But inconstant in fidelity to anyone.

        Expect not faithfulness from nightingales

        Who sing every moment to another rose.

  Contrary to aged men who spend their lives according to wisdom and

propriety; not according to the impulses of folly and youth.

        Find one better than thyself and consider it fortunate

        Because with one like thyself thou wilt be disappointed.

  The old man said: 'I continued in this strain, thinking that I had

captivated her heart and that it had become my prey.' She drew,

however, a deep sigh from her grief-filled heart and said: 'All the

words thou hast uttered, weighed in the scales of my understanding,

are not equivalent to the maxim I once heard enounced in my tribe:

An arrow in the side of a young woman is better than an old man.'

        When she perceived in the hands of her husband

        Something pendant like the nether lip of a fasting man,

        She said: 'This fellow has a corpse with him

        But incantations are for sleepers not for corpses.'

        A woman who arises without satisfaction from a man

        Will raise many a quarrel and contention.

        An old man who is unable to rise from his place,

        Except by the aid of a stick, how can his own stick rise?

  In short, there being no possibility of harmony, a separation at

last took place. When the time of the lady's uddat had terminated, she

was given in marriage to a young man who was violent, ill-humoured and

empty-handed. She suffered much from his bad temper and tyrannical

behaviour, and experienced the miseries of penury. She nevertheless

said: 'Praise be to Allah for having been delivered from that wretched

torment, and attained this permanent blessing.'

        Despite of all this violence and hasty nature

        I shall try to please thee because thou art beauteous.

        To be with thee in hell burning is for me

        Better than to be with the other in paradise.

        The smell of an onion from the mouth of a pretty face

        Is indeed better than a rose from an ugly hand.

        A nice face and a gown of gold brocade,

        Essence of roses, fragrant aloes, paint, perfume and lust:

        All these are ornaments of women.

        Take a man; and his testicles are a sufficient ornament.