The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 5 by Sir Richard Francis Burton (best romance novels of all time txt) 📕

For sake of friend who ever dwells within my vitals homed, * And I may never win my wish of him in any guise.

He hath a favour fair and bright, and brilliant is his face, *

Which every Turk and Arab wight in loveliness outvies: The Sun and fullest Moon lout low whenas his charms they sight, *

And lover-like they bend to him whene’er he deigneth rise.

A wondrous spell of gramarye like Kohl bedecks his eyne, And shows thee bow with shaft on string make ready ere it flies: O thou, to whom I told my case expecting all excuse, Pity a lover-wight for whom Love-shafts such fate devise!

Verily, Love hath cast me on your coast despite of me Of will now weak, and fain I trust mine honour thou wilt prize: For noble men, whenas perchance alight upon their bounds,

Grace-worthy guests, confess their worth and raise to dignities. Then,

O thou hope of me, to lovers’ folly veil afford * And be to them reunion cause, thou only liefest lord!”

And when she had ended her verses, she again told the King her sad tale and shed plenteous tears and recited these couplets bearing on her case,

“We lived till saw we all the marvels Love can bear; * Each month to thee we hope shall fare as Rajab[FN#72] fare: Is it not wondrous, when I saw them march amorn * That I with water o’ eyes in heart lit flames that flare?

That these mine eyelids rain fast dropping gouts of blood? * That now my cheek grows gold where rose and lily were?

As though the safflower hue, that overspread my cheeks, * Were Joseph’s coat made stain of lying blood to wear.”

Now when the King heard her words he was certified of her love and longing and was moved to ruth for her; so he said to her, “Fear nothing and be not troubled; thou hast come to the term of thy wishes; for there is no help but that I win for thee thy will and bring thee to thy desire.” And he improvised these couplets, “Daughter of nobles, who thine aim shalt gain; *

Hear gladdest news nor fear aught hurt of bane!

This day I’ll pack up wealth, and send it on *

To Sh�mikh, guarded by a champion-train; Fresh pods of musk I’ll send him and brocades, *

And silver white and gold of yellow vein: Yes, and a letter shall inform him eke *

That I of kinship with that King am fain: And I this day will lend thee bestest aid, *

That all thou covetest thy soul assain.

I, too, have tasted love and know its taste *

And can excuse whoso the same cup drain.”[FN#73]

Then, ending his verse, he went forth to his troops and summoned his Wazir; and, causing him to pack up countless treasure, commanded him carry it to King Shamikh and say to him, “Needs must thou send me a person named Uns al-Wujud;” and say moreover “The King is minded to ally himself with thee by marrying his daughter to Uns al-Wujud, thine officer. So there is no help but thou despatch him to me, that the marriage may be solemnized in her father’s kingdom.” And he wrote a letter to King Shamikh to this effect, and gave it to the Minister, charging him strictly to bring back Uns al-Wujud and warning him, “An thou fail thou shalt be deposed and degraded.” Answered the Wazir, “I hear and obey;” and, setting out forthright with the treasures, in due course arrived at the court of King Shamikh whom he saluted in the name of King Dirbas and delivered the letter and the presents. Now when King Shamikh read the letter and saw the name of Uns al-Wujud, he burst into tears and said to the Wazir “And where, or where, is Uns al-Wujud?; he went from us and we know not his place of abiding; only bring him to me, and I will give thee double the presents thou hast brought me.” And he wept and groaned and lamented, saying these couplets, “To me restore my dear; * I want not wealth untold: Nor crave I gifts of pearls Or gems or store of gold: He was to us a moon In beauty’s heavenly fold.

Passing in form and soul; * With roe compare withhold!

His form a willow-wand, * His fruit, lures manifold; But willow lacketh power * Men’s hearts to have and hold.

I reared him from a babe * On cot of coaxing roll’d; And now I mourn for him * With woe in soul ensoul’d.”

Then, turning to the Wazir who had brought the presents and the missive, he said, “Go back to thy liege and acquaint him that Uns al-Wujud hath been missing this year past, and his lord knoweth not whither he is gone nor hath any tidings of him.” Answered the Minister of King Dirbas, “O my lord, my master said to me, ‘An thou fail to bring him back, thou shalt be degraded from the Wazirate and shall not enter my city. How then can I return without him?’” So King Shamikh said to his Wazir Ibrahim, “Take a company and go with him and make ye search for Uns al-Wujud everywhere.” He replied, “Hearkening and obedience;” and, taking a body of his own retainers, set out accompanied by the Wazir of King Dirbas seeking Uns al-Wujud.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the Three Hundred and Seventy-ninth Night, She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ibrahim, Wazir to King Shamikh, took him a body of his retainers and, accompanied by the Minister of King Dirbas, set out seeking Uns al-Wujud. And as often as they fell in with wild Arabs or others they asked of the youth, saying, “Tell us have ye seen a man whose name is so and so and his semblance thus and thus?” But they all answered, “We know him not.” Still they continued their quest, enquiring in city and hamlet and seeking in fertile plain and stony hall and in the wild and in the wold, till they made the Mountain of the Bereaved Mother; and the Wazir of King Dirbas said to Ibrahim, “Why is this mountain thus called?” He answered, “Once of old time, here sojourned a Jinniyah, of the Jinn of China, who loved a mortal with passionate love; and, being in fear of her life from her own people, searched all the earth over for a place, where she might hide him from them, till she happened on this mountain and, finding it cut off from both men and Jinn, there being no access to it, carried off her beloved and lodged him therein. There, when she could escape notice of her kith and kin, she used privily to visit him, and continued so doing till she had borne him a number of children; and the merchants, sailing by the mountain, in their voyages over the main, heard the weeping of the children, as it were the wailing of a woman bereft of her babes, and said, ‘Is there here a mother bereaved of her children?’ For which reason the place was named the Mountain of the Bereaved Mother.” And the Wazir of King Dirbas marvelled at his words. Then they landed and, making for the castle, knocked at the gate which was opened to them by an eunuch, who knew the Wazir Ibrahim and kissed his hands. The Minister entered and found in the courtyard, among the serving-men, a Fakir, which was Uns al-Wujud, but he knew him not and said, “Whence cometh yonder wight?” Quoth they, “He is a merchant, who hath lost his goods, but saved himself; and he is an ecstatic.”[FN#74] So the Wazir left him and went on into the castle, where he found no trace of his daughter and questioned her women, who answered, “We wot not how or whither she went; this place misliked her and she tarried in it but a short time.”

Whereupon he wept sore and repeated these couplets, “Ho thou, the house, whose birds were singing gay, *

Whose sills their wealth and pride were wont display!

Till came the lover wailing for his love, *

And found thy doors wide open to the way; Would Heaven I knew where is my soul that erst *

Was homed in house, whose owners fared away!

‘Twas stored with all things bright and beautiful, *

And showed its porters ranged in fair array: They clothed it with brocades a bride become;[FN#75] *

Would I knew whither went its lords, ah, say!”

After ending his verses he again shed tears, and groaned and bemoaned himself, exclaiming, “There is no deliverance from the destiny decreed by Allah; nor is there any escape from that which He hath predestined!” Then he went up to the roof and found the strips of Ba’albak stuff tied to the crenelles and hanging down to the ground, and thus it was he knew that she had descended thence and had fled forth, as one distracted and demented with desire and passion. Presently, he turned and seeing there two birds, a gor-crow and an owl he justly deemed this an omen of ill; so he groaned and recited these couplets, “I came to my dear friends’ door, of my hopes the goal, *

Whose sight mote assuage my sorrow and woes of soul: No friends found I there, nor was there another thing *

To find, save a corby-crow and an ill-omened owl.

And the tongue o’ the case to me seemed to say, *

‘Indeed This parting two lovers fond was cruel and foul!

So taste thou the sorrow thou madest them taste and live *

In grief: wend thy ways and now in thy sorrow prowl!’”

Then he descended from the castle-roof, weeping, and bade the servants fare forth and search the mount for their mistress; so they sought for her, but found her not. Such was their case; but as regards Uns al-Wujud, when he was certified that Rose-in-Hood was indeed gone, he cried with a great cry and fell down in a fainting-fit, nor came to himself for a long time, whilst the folk deemed that his spirit had been withdrawn by the Compassionating One; and that he was absorbed in contemplation of the splendour, majesty and beauty of the Requiting One. Then, despairing of finding Uns al-Wujud, and seeing that the Wazir Ibrahim was distracted for the loss of his daughter, the Minister of King Dirbas addressed himself to return to his own country, albeit he had not attained the object of his journey, and while bidding his companion adieu, said to him, “I have a mind to take the Fakir with me; it may be Allah Almighty will incline the King’s heart to me by his blessing, for that he is a holy man; and thereafter, I will send him to Ispahan, which is near our country.” “Do as thou wilt,” answered Ibrahim. So they took leave of each other and departed, each for his own mother land, the Wazir of King