The Scented Garden

82 The Peace, the Jealousy, and the Ecstasy of God. The night is full of small breezes, blowing apple- blossoms hither and thither. All the stars shine, and thou shalt have a caress for every star. But there is only one moon, and only once shall thy podex be invaded ; for not until the dawn breaks will El Qahar withdraw his member. Even so that happy one, who is united with Al- lah, shall never leave Him ; so the crimson of the West shall fade into the blue of the whole sky, and the blue be illumined by the streamers of the false dawn, which is like death as the true dawn is like the last day.7 I hope, Habib, that thy podex is ca- pable of severe combat ; for not until the dawn breaks will El Qahar withdraw his member. 1. So our best M.S. [Persian text] But [Persian text] flesh — meaning buttocks — sounds more likely. Consideration of prosody support the text. 2. Meteor-struck : meteors are the stones flung by the angels at the Jinn who pry into Heaven. This epithet confirms our view of the allegory. 3. Eunuchs. Those from whom the testicles only are removed can still copulate, and experience sexual orgasm, though of course no fecundation results. Hence the possibility of Gibbon’s remark that a certain lady “ preferred the titillations of her favourite eunuch to the ponderous emballings of the Roman praetor ” ; and of Martial’s epigram : “ Cur tantum eunuchos habeat tua Gellia, quae- ris, Pannice ? vult frui Gellia, non parere.” 4. This jest depends on the pun — a somewhat significant one ! — between [Persian text] uncons- cious, stupefied and [Persian text] matron, a vir- tuous woman. 5. An excellent prescription. Olive oil is of course meant.