“What aileth thee?” said Ahmed. “Hast thou not every thing thy heart can wish?”
“Alas, no!” replied the dove; “am I not separated from the partner of my heart, and that too in the happy spring-time, the very season of love!”
“Of love!” echoed Ahmed; “I pray thee, my pretty bird, canst thou tell me what is love?”
“Too well can I, my prince. It is the torment of one, the felicity of two, the strife and enmity of three. It is a charm which draws two beings together, and unites them by delicious sympathies, making it happiness to be with each other, but misery to be apart.”
- Washington Irving, “The Legend of Prince Ahmed al Kamel, or, The Pilgrim of Love,” from Tales of the Alhambra
