Note 588 — THE HUNCHBACK'S TALE.
Richard Francis Burton translation · Edition 2
Arab. "Narjís." The Arabs borrowed nothing, but the Persians much, from Greek Mythology. Hence the eye of Narcissus, an idea hardly suggested by the look of the daffodil (or asphodel) flower, is at times the glance of a spy and at times the die-away look of a mistress. Some scholars explain it by the form of the flower, the internal calyx resembling the iris, and the stalk being bent just below the petals suggesting drooping eyelids and languid eyes. Hence a poet addresses the Narcissus:—
O Narjis, look away! Before those eyes ✿ I may not kiss her as a-breast she lies.
What! Shall the lover close his eyes in sleep ✿ While thine watch all things between earth and skies?
The fashionable lover in the East must affect a frantic jealousy if he does not feel it.