what they were in prevented them from engaging in conversation and everything disintegrated from the intensity of the heat and everything died down from the intensity of the cold and every icyeyed man wished throughout the journey that the earth would fold up for him and whenever he saw a shadow or saw a sign he was delighted and optimistic and thought that he had reached home but when the knight reached it he dismounted and he was as if he were a boy with an injection groaning like a sick person and resting by yawning and treating what he had by stretching out and lying down. and you would see the turk in that state having walked twice as long as they had walked and his shoulders tired from much suffering seeing a donkey or a gazelle near home or a fox or a rabbit appearing to him galloping as if the one who walked that walk and was tired that way was someone else.
وقطعهم ما هم فيه عن التشاغل بالحديث، وتفسخ كل شيء من شدة الحر، وخمد كل شيء من شدة البرد، وتمنى كل جليد القوى على طول السرى أن تطوى له الأرض، وكلما رأى خيالا أو أبصر علما سر به واستبشر، وظن أنه قد بلغ المنزل؛ فإذا بلغه الفارس نزل وهو متفحج كأنه صبي محقون، يئن أنين المريض، ويستريح إلى التثاؤب، ويتداوى مما به بالتمطي والتضجع. وترى التركي في تلك الحال وقد سار ضعف ما ساروا وقد أتعب منكبيه كثرة النزع، يرى قرب المنزل عيرا أو ظبيا، أو عرض له ثعلب أو أرنب، خيركض ركض مبتدئ مستأنف، كأن الذي سار ذلك السير وتعب ذلك التعب غيره.