The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 8 by Sir Richard Francis Burton (great books for teens TXT) 📕

Presently the Chief Kazi bethought himself of the blacksmith; so he sent for him and said to him, “O blacksmith, knowest thou aught of the damsel whom thou didst direct to me? By Allah, an thou discover her not to me, I will whack thee with whips.” Now when the smith heard this, he recited these couplets[FN#365], “She who my all of love by love of her hath won Owns every Beauty and for others leaves she none: She gazes, a gazelle; she breathes, fresh ambergris She waves, a lake; she sways, a bough; she shines, a Sun.”

Then said the blacksmith, “By Allah, O my lord, since she fared forth from thy worshipful presence,[FN#366] I have not set eyes on her; no, not once. Indeed she took possession of my heart and wits and all my talk and thoughts are of her. I went to her lodging but found her not, nor found I any who could give me news of her, and it is as if she had dived into the depths of the sea or had ascended to the sky.” Now when the Kazi heard this, he groaned a groan, that his soul was like to depart therefor, and he said, “By Allah, well it were had we never seen her!” Then the smith went away, whilst the Kazi fell down on his bed and became sick of langour for her sake, and on like wise fared it with the other three Kazis and assessors. The mediciners paid them frequent calls, but found in them no ailment requiring a leach: so the city-notables went in to the Chief Kazi and saluting him, questioned him of his case; whereupon he sighed and showed them that was in his heart, reciting these couplets, “Stint ye this blame; enough I suffer from Love’s malady * Nor chide the Kazi frail who fain must deal to folk decree!

Who doth accuse my love let him for me find some excuse: * Nor blame; for lovers blameless are in lover-slavery!

I was a K�zi whom my Fate deigned aid with choicest aid By writ and reed and rais�d me to wealth and high degree; Till I was shot by sharpest shaft that knows nor leach nor cure

By Damsel’s glance who came to spill my blood and murther me.

To me came she, a Moslemah and of her wrongs she ‘plained With lips that oped on Orient-pearls ranged fair and orderly: I looked beneath her veil and saw a wending moon at full Rising below the wings of Night engloomed with blackest blee: A brightest favour and a mouth bedight with wondrous smiles; *

Beauty had brought the loveliest garb and robed her cap-�-pie.

By Allah, ne’er beheld my eyes a face so ferly fair * Amid mankind whoever are, Arab or Ajam�.

My Fair! What promise didst thou make what time to me thou said’st * �Whenas I promise I perform, O Kazi, faithfully.’

Such is my stead and such my case calamitous and dire * And ask me not, ye men of spunk, what dreadful teen I dree.”

When he ended his verse he wept with sore weeping and sobbed one sob and his spirit departed his body, which seeing they washed him and shrouded him and prayed over him and buried him graving on his tomb these couplets,

“Perfect were lover’s qualities in him was brought a-morn, *

Slain by his love and his beloved, to this untimely grave: K�zi was he amid the folk, and aye ‘twas his delight * To foster all the folk and keep a-sheath the Justice-glaive: Love caused his doom and ne’er we saw among mankind before * The lord and master louting low before his thrall�d slave.”

Then they committed him to the mercy of Allah and went away to the second Kazi, in company with the physician, but found in him nor injury nor ailment needing a leach. Accordingly they questioned him of his case and what preoccupied him; so he told them what ailed him, whereupon they blamed him and chid him for his predicament and he answered them with these couplets, “Blighted by her yet am I not to blame; * Struck by the dart at me her fair hand threw.

Unto me came a woman called Hub�b * Chiding the world from year to year anew:

And brought a damsel showing face that shamed * Full moon that sails through Night-tide’s blackest hue, She showed her beauties and she ‘plained her plain Which tears in torrents from her eyelids drew: I to her words gave ear and gazed on her Whenas with smiling lips she made me rue.

Then with my heart she fared where’er she fared * And left me pledged to sorrows soul subdue.

Such is my tale! So pity ye my case * And this my page with Kazi’s gear indue.”

Then he sobbed one sob and his soul fled his flesh; whereupon they gat ready his funeral and buried him commending him to the mercy of Allah; after which they repaired to the third Kazi and the fourth, and there befel them the like of what befel their brethren.[FN#367] Furthermore, they found the Assessors also sick for love of her, and indeed all who saw her died of her love or, an they died not, lived on tortured with the lowe of passion.—

And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty-first Night, She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the city folk found all the Kazis and the Assessors sick for love of her, and all who saw her died lovesick or, an they died not, lived on tortured with the lowe of passion for stress of pining to no purpose—Allah have mercy on them one and all! Meanwhile Zayn alMawasif and her women drave on with all diligence till they were far distant from the city and it so fortuned that they came to a convent by the way, wherein dwelt a Prior called Danis and forty monks.[FN#368] When the Prior saw her beauty, he went out to her and invited her to alight, saying, “Rest with us ten days and after wend your ways.” So she and her damsels alighted and entered the convent; and when Danis saw her beauty and loveliness, she debauched his belief and he was seduced by her: wherefore he fell to sending the monks, one after other with love-messages; but each who saw her fell in love with her and sought her favours for himself, whilst she excused and denied herself to them. But Danis ceased not his importunities till he had dispatched all the forty, each one of whom fell lovesick at first sight and plied her with blandishments never even naming Danis; whilst she refused and rebuffed them with harsh replies.

At last when Danis’s patience was at an end and his passion was sore on him, he said in himself, “Verily, the sooth-sayer saith, �Naught scratcheth my skin but my own nail and naught like my own feet for mine errand may avail.’” So up he rose and made ready rich meats, and it was the ninth day of her sojourn in the convent where she had purposed only to rest. Then he carried them in to her and set them before her, saying, “Bismillah, favour us by tasting the best of the food at our command.” So she put forth her hand, saying, “For the name of Allah the Compassionating, the Compassionate!” and ate, she and her handmaidens. When she had made an end of eating, he said to her, “O my lady, I wish to recite to thee some verses.” Quoth she, “Say on,” and he recited these couplets,

“Thou hast won my heart by cheek and eye of thee, * I’ll praise for love in prose and poesy.

Wilt fly a lover, lovesick, love-distraught * Who strives in dreams some cure of love to see?

Leave me not fallen, passion-fooled, since I * For pine have left uncared the Monast’ry:

O Fairest, ‘tis thy right to shed my blood, * So rue my case and hear the cry of me!”

When Zayn alMawasif heard his verses, she answered him with these two couplets,

“O who suest Union, ne’er hope such delight * Nor solicit my favours, O hapless wight!

Cease to hanker for what thou canst never have: * Next door are the greedy to sore despight.”

Hearing this he returned to his place, pondering in himself and knowing not how he should do in her affair, and passed the night in the sorriest plight. But, as soon as the darkness was darkest Zayn alMawasif arose and said to her handmaids, “Come, let us away, for we cannot avail against forty men, monks, each of whom requireth me for himself.” Quoth they, “Right willingly!” So they mounted their beasts and issued forth the convent gate,—

Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

When it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty-second Night, She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Zayn alMawasif and her handmaids issued forth the convent gate and, under favour of the night, rode on till they overtook a caravan, with which they mingled and found it came from the city of ‘Adan wherein the lady had dwelt. Presently, Zayn alMawasif heard the people of the caravan discoursing of her own case and telling how the Kazis and Assessors were dead of love for her and how the townsfolk had appointed in their stead others who released her husband from prison. Whereupon she turned to her maids and asked them, “Heard ye that?”; and Hubub answered, “If the monks were ravished with love of thee, whose belief it is that shunning women is worship, how should it be with the Kazis, who hold that there is no monkery in Al-Islam? But let us make our way to our own country, whilst our affair is yet hidden.” So they drave on with all diligence. Such was their case; but as regards the monks, on the morrow, as soon as it was day they repaired to Zayn alMawasif’s lodging, to salute her, but found the place empty, and their hearts sickened within them. So the first monk rent his raiment and improvised these couplets,

“Ho ye, my friends, draw near, for I forthright * From you depart, since parting is my lot:

My vitals suffer pangs o’ fiery love; * Flames of desire in heart burn high and hot,

For sake of fairest girl who sought our land * Whose charms th’

horizon’s full moon evens not.

She fared and left me victimed by her love * And slain by shaft those lids death-dealing shot.”

Then another monk recited the following couplets, “O ye who with my vitals fled, have ruth * On this unhappy: haste ye homeward-bound:

They fared, and fared fair Peace on farthest track * Yet lingers in mine ear that sweetest sound:

Fared far, and far their fane; would Heaven I saw Their shade in vision float my couch around:

And when they went wi’ them they bore my heart * And in my tear-floods all of me left drowned.”

A third monk followed with these extempore lines, “Throne you on highmost stead, heart, ears and sight * Your wone’s my heart; mine all’s your dwelling-site: Sweeter than honey is your name a-lip, * Running, as ‘neath my ribs runs vital sprite:

For Love hath made me as a toothpick[FN#368] lean * And drowned in tears