Supplemental Nights to The Book of the Thousand and One Nights by Sir Richard Francis Burton (suggested reading .TXT) 📖

said to her, “What is thy need, O handmaid of good?” Presently she put out her hand to him with the writ, after she had kissed it, and he bade one of his slavegirls receive it from her.[FN#407] Then he took it from the girl and breaking the seal, read it and comprehended its contents; whereupon he cried, “Verily, we be Allah’s and unto Him we shall return!” and calling for ink-case and paper, wrote these improvised couplets:—

 

I wonder seeing how thy love to me * Inclined, while I in heart from love declined:

Eke wast thou wont to say in verseful writ, * “Son of the Road[FN#408] no road to me shall find!

How oft kings flocked to me with mighty men * And bales on back of Bukhti[FN#409] beast they bind: And noble steeds of purest blood and all * They bore of choicest boons to me consigned;

Yet won no favour!” Then came I to woo * And the long tale o’

love I had designed,

I fain set forth in writ of mine, with words * Like strings of pearls in goodly line aligned:—

Set forth my sev’rance, griefs, tyrannic wrongs, * And ill device ill-suiting lover-kind.

How oft love-claimant, craving secrecy, * How oft have lovers ‘plained as sore they pined,

How many a brimming bitter cup I’ve quaffed, * And wept my woes when speech was vain as wind!

And thou:—“Be patient, ‘tis thy bestest course * And choicest medicine for mortal mind!”

Then unto patience worthy praise cleave thou; * Easy of issue and be lief resigned:

Nor hope thou aught of me lest ill alloy * Or aught of dross affect my blood refined:

Such is my speech. Read, mark, and learn my say! * To what thou deemest ne’er I’ll tread the way.

 

Then he folded the scroll and sealing it, entrusted it to the damsel, who took it and bore it to her mistress. When the Princess read the letter and mastered its meaning, she said, “Meseemeth he recalleth bygones to me.” Then she called for pens, ink, and paper, and wrote these couplets: Love thou didst show me till I learnt its woe Then to the growth of grief didst severance show: I banisht joys of slumber after you And e’en my pillow garred my wake to grow.

How long in parting shall I pine with pain * While severance-spies[FN#410] through night watch every throe?

I’ve left my kingly couch and self withdrew * Therefrom, and taught mine eyelids sleep t’unknow: ‘Twas thou didst teach me what I ne’er can bear: * Then didst thou waste my frame with parting-blow.

By oath I swear thee, blame and chide me not: * Be kind to mourner Love hath stricken low!

For parting-rigours drive him nearer still * To narrow home, ere clad in shroud for clo’:

Have ruth on me, since Love laid waste my frame, * ‘Mid thralls enrolled me and lit fires that flame.

 

Mariyah rolled up the letter and gave it to Shafikah, bidding her bear it to Al-Abbas. Accordingly she took it and going with it to his door, proceeded to enter; but the chamberlains and serving-men forbade her, till they had obtained her leave from the Prince. When she went into him, she found him sitting in the midst of the five damsels before mentioned, whom his father had brought for him; so she gave him the letter and he tare it open and read it. Then he bade one of the damsels, whose name was Khafifah and who came from the land of China, tune her lute and sing anent separation. Thereupon she came forward and tuning her lute, played thereon in four-and-twenty modes: after which she returned to the first and sang these couplets, “Our friends, when leaving us on parting-day, * Drave us in wolds of severance-grief to stray:

When bound the camels’ litters bearing them, * And cries of drivers urged them on the way, Outrusht my tears, despair gat hold of me * And sleep betrayed mine eyes to wake a prey.

The day they went I wept, but showed no ruth * The severance-spy and flared the flames alw�y:

Alas for lowe o’ Love that fires me still! * Alack for pine that melts my heart away!

To whom shall I complain of care, when thou * Art gone, nor fain a-pillow head I lay?

And day by day Love’s ardours grow on me, * And far’s the tent that holds my fondest may:

O Breeze o’ Heaven, bear for me a charge * (Nor traitor-like my troth in love betray!),

Whene’er thou breathest o’er the loved one’s land Greet him with choice salam fro’ me, I pray: Dust him with musk and powdered ambergris While time endures!

Such is my wish for aye.”

 

When the damsel had made an end of her song, Al-Abbas swooned away and they sprinkled on him musked rose-water, till he recovered from his fainting-fit, when he called another damsel (now there was on her of linen and raiment and ornaments that which undoeth description, and she was a model of beauty and brightness and loveliness and symmetry and perfect grace, such as shamed the crescent moon, and she was a Turkish girl from the land of the Roum and her name was H�fizah) and said to her, “O

Hafizah, close thine eyes and tune thy lute and sing to us upon the days of severance.” She answered him, “To hear is to obey”

and taking the lute, tightened its strings and cried out from her head,[FN#411] in a plaintive voice, and sang these couplets, “My friends! tears flow in painful mockery, * And sick my heart from parting agony:

My frame is wasted and my vitals wrung * And love-fires grow and eyes set tear-floods free:

And when the fire burns high beneath my ribs * With tears I quench it as sad day I see.

Love left me wasted, baffled, pain-begone, * Sore frighted, butt to spying enemy:

When I recal sweet union wi’ their loves * I chase dear sleep from the sick frame o’ me.

Long as our parting lasts the rival joys * And spies with fearful prudence gain their gree.

I fear me for my sickly, langourous frame * Lest dread of parting slay me incontinently.”

 

When Hafizah had ended her song, Al-Abbas cried to her, “Brava!

Verily, thou quickenest hearts from griefs.” Then he called another maiden of the daughters of Daylam by name Marj�nah, and said to her, “O Marjanah, sing to me upon the days of parting.”

She said, “Hearing and obeying,” and recited these couplets, “‘Cleave to fair Patience! Patience ‘gendereth weal’: * Such is the rede to us all sages deal: How oft I plained the lowe of grief and love * Mid passions cast my soul in sore unheal.

How oft I waked and drained the bitter cup * And watched the stars, nor sleep mine eyes would seal!

Enough it were an deal you grace to me * In writ a-morn and garred no hope to feel.

But Thoughts which probed its depths would sear my heart * And start from eyebrows streams that ever steal: Nor cease I suffering baleful doom and nights Wakeful, and heart by sorrows rent piece-meal: But Allah purged my soul from love of you When all knew secrets cared I not reveal.

I march tomorrow from your country and * Haply you’ll speed me nor fear aught unweal;

And, when in person you be far from us, * Would heaven we knew who shall your news reveal.

Who kens if home will e’er us two contain * In dearest life with union naught can stain!”

 

When Marjanah had made an end of her song, the Prince said to her, “Brava, O damsel! Indeed, thou sayest a thing which had occurred to my mind and my tongue was near to speaking it.” Then he signed to the fourth damsel, who was a Cairene, by name Sitt al-Husn, and bade her tune her lute and sing to him upon the same theme. So the Lady of Beauty tuned her lute and sang these couplets,

 

“Patience is blest for weal comes after woe * And all things stated time and ordinance show; Haps the Sultan, hight Fortune, prove unjust Shifting the times, and man excuse shall know: Bitter ensueth sweet in law of change And after crookedness things straightest grow.

Then guard thine honour, nor to any save * The noble knowledge of the hid bestow:

These be vicissitudes the Lord commands * Poor men endure, the sinner and the low.”

 

When Al-Abbas heard her make an end of her verses, they pleased him and he said to her, “Brava, O Sitt al-Husn! Indeed, thou hast done away with anxiety from my heart and hast banished the things which had occurred to my thought.” Then he sighed and signing to the fifth damsel, who was from the land of the Persians and whose name was Marz�yah (now she was the fairest of them all and the sweetest of speech and she was like unto a lustrous star, a model of beauty and loveliness and perfection and brightness and justness of shape and symmetric grace and had a face like the new moon and eyes as they were gazelle’s eyes) and said to her, “O

Marziyah, come forward and tune thy lute and sing to us on the same theme, for indeed we are resolved upon faring to the land of Al-Yaman.” Now this maiden had met many of the monarchs and had foregathered with the great; so she tuned her lute and sang these couplets,

 

“Friend of my heart why leave thou lone and desolate these eyne?

* Fair union of our lots ne’er failed this sitting-stead of mine!

And ah! who dwellest singly in the heart and sprite of me, * (Be I thy ransom!) desolate for loss of friend I pine!

By Allah! O thou richest form in charms and loveliness, * Give alms to lover who can show of patience ne’er a sign!

Alms of what past between us tway (which ne’er will I divulge) *

Of privacy between us tway that man shall ne’er divine: Grant me approval of my lord whereby t’ o’erwhelm the foe And let my straitness pass away and doubtful thoughts malign: Approof of thee (an gained the meed) for me high rank shall gain And show me robed in richest weed to eyes of envy fain.”

 

When she had ended her song, all who were in the assembly wept for the daintiness of her delivery and the sweetness of her speech and Al-Abbas said to her, “Brava, O Marz�yah! Indeed, thou bewilderest the wits with the beauty of thy verse and the polish of thy speech.”[FN#412] All this while Shafikah abode gazing about her, and when she beheld the slavegirls of Al-Abbas and considered the charms of their clothing and the subtlety of their senses and the delicacy of their delivery her reason flew from her head. Then she sought leave of Al-Abbas and returning to her mistress Mariyah, sans letter or reply, acquainted her with what she had espied of the damsels and described to her the condition wherein he was of honour and delight, majesty, venerance and loftiness of rank. Lastly, she enlarged upon what she had seen of the slavegirls and their case and that which they had said and how they had incited Al-Abbas anent returning to his own country by the recitation of songs to the sound of the strings. When the Princess heard this her slavegirl’s report, she wept and wailed and was like to leave the world. Then she took to her pillow and said, “O Shafikah, I will inform thee of a something which is