The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night Volume IV Part 17

Then he went on to the third cage, in which was a mocking-bird.

When it saw him, it set up a song, and he recited the following verses:

The mocking-bird delighteth me with his harmonious strain, As 'twere a lover's voice that pines and wastes for love in vain.

Woe's me for those that lovers be! How many a weary night, For love and anguish and desire, to waken they are fain!

'Twould seem as if they had no part in morning or in sleep, For all the stress of love and woe that holds their heart and brain.

When I became distraught for her I love and wistfulness Bound me in fetters strait, the tears from out mine eyes did rain So thick and fast, they were as chains, and I to her did say, "My tears have fallen so thick, that now they've bound me with a chain."

The treasures of my patience fail, absence is long on me And yearning sore; and pa.s.sion's stress consumeth me amain.

If G.o.d's protection cover me and Fortune be but just And Fate with her whom I adore unite me once again, I'll doff my clothes, that she may see how worn my body is, For languishment and severance and solitary pain.

Then he went on to the fourth cage, where he found a nightingale, which, at sight of him, began to tune its plaintive note. When he heard its descant, he burst into tears and repeated the following verses:

The nightingale's note, when the dawning is near, Distracts from the lute-strings the true lover's ear.

Complaineth, for love-longing, Uns el Wujoud, Of a pa.s.sion that blotteth his being out sheer.

How many sweet notes, that would soften, for mirth, The hardness of iron and stone, do I hear!

The zephyr of morning brings tidings to me Of meadows, full-flower'd for the blossoming year.

The scents on the breeze and the music of birds, In the dawning, transport me with joyance and cheer.

But I think of a loved one, that's absent from me, And mine eyes rain in torrents, with tear upon tear; And the ardour of longing flames high in my breast, As a fire in the heart of a brasier burns clear.

May Allah vouchsafe to a lover distraught To see and foregather once more with his dear!

Yea, for lovers, heart-sickness and longing and woe And wake are excuses that plainly appear.

Then he went on a little and came to a handsome cage, than which there was no goodlier there, and in it a culver, that is to Say, a wood-pigeon, the bird renowned among the birds as the singer of love-longing, with a collar of jewels about its neck, wonder-goodly of ordinance. He considered it awhile and seeing it mazed and brooding in its cage, shed tears and repeated these verses:

O culver of the copse, may peace upon thee light, O friend of all who love and every wistful wight!

I love a young gazelle, a slender one, whose glance Than sharpest sabre's point is keener and more bright.

For love of her, my heart and entrails are a-fire And sicknesses consume my body and my spright.

The sweet of pleasant food's forbidden unto me, And eke I am denied the taste of sleep's delight.

Solace and fort.i.tude have taken flight from me, And love and longing lodge with me, both day and night.

How shall my life be sweet to me, while she's afar, That is my life, my wish, the apple of my sight?

When the pigeon heard these verses, it awoke from its brooding and cooed and warbled and trilled, till it all but spoke; and the tongue of the case interpreted for it and recited the following verses:

O lover, thy wailings recall to my mind The time when my youth from me wasted and dwined, And A mistress, whose charms and whose grace I adored, Seductive and fair over all of her kind; Whose voice, from the twigs of the sandhill upraised, Left the strains of the flute, to my thought, far behind.

A snare set the fowler and caught me, who cried, "Would he d leave me to range at my will on the wind!"

I had hoped he was clement or seeing that I Was a lover, would pity my lot and be kind; But no, (may G.o.d smite him!) he tore me away From my dear and apart from her harshly confined.

Since then, my desire for her grows without cease, And my heart with the fires of disjunction is mined.

G.o.d guard a true lover, who striveth with love And hath suffered the torments in which I have pined!

When he seeth me languish for love in my cage, He will loose me, in mercy, my loved one to find

Then Uns el Wujoud turned to his friend, the Ispahani and said to him, 'What palace is this? Who built it and who abideth in it?' Quoth the eunuch, 'The Vizier of King Shamikh built it for his daughter, fearing for her the a.s.saults of fate and the vicissitudes of fortune, and lodged her therein, with her attendants; nor do we open it save once in every year, when our victual comes to us.' And Uns el Wujoud said in himself, 'I have gained my end' though after long travail.'

Meanwhile, Rose-in-bud took no delight in eating nor drinking, sitting nor sleeping; but her transport and pa.s.sion and love-longing redoubled on her, and she went wandering about the castle, but could find no issue; wherefore she shed plenteous tears and recited the following verses:

They have prisoned me straitly from him I adore And given me to eat of mine anguish galore.

My heart with the flames of love-longing they fired, When me from the sight of my loved one they bore.

They have cloistered me close in a palace built high On a mount in the midst of a sea without sh.o.r.e.

If they'd have me forget, their endeavour is vain, For my love but redoubles upon me the more.

How can I forget him, when all I endure Arose from the sight of his face heretofore?

My days are consumed in lament, and my nights Pa.s.s in thinking of him, as I knew him of yore.

His memory my solace in solitude is, Since the lack of his presence I needs must deplore.

I wonder, will Fate grant my heart its desire And my love, after all, to my wishes restore!

Then she donned her richest clothes and trinkets and threw a necklace of jewels around her neck; after which she ascended to the roof of the castle and tying some strips of Baalbek stuff together, [to serve for a rope], made them fast to the battlements and let herself down thereby to the ground. Then she fared on over wastes and wilds, till she came to the sea-sh.o.r.e, where she saw a fis.h.i.+ng-boat, and therein a fisherman, whom the wind had driven on to the island, as he went, fis.h.i.+ng here and there, on the sea.

When he saw her, he was affrighted, [ taking her for a Jinniyeh]

and put out again to sea; but she cried out and made pressing signs to him to return, reciting the following verses:

Harkye, O fisherman, fear thou no injury; I'm but an earthly maid, a mortal like to thee.

I do implore thee, stay, give ear unto my prayer And hearken to my true and woeful history.

Pity, (so G.o.d thee spare,) the ardour [of my love,] And say if thou hast seen a loved one, fled from me.

I love a fair-faced youth and goodly; brighter far Of aspect than the face of sun or moon is he.

The antelope, that sees his glances, cries, "His slave Am I,"

and doth confess inferiority.

Yea, beauty on his brow these pregnant words hath writ In very dust of musk, significant to see, "Who sees the light of love is in the way of right, And he who strays commits foul sin and heresy."

An thou have ruth on me and bring me to his sight, O rare!

Whate'er thou wilt thy recompense shall be; Rubies and precious stones and freshly gathered pearls And every kind of gem that is in earth and sea.

Surely, O friend, thou wilt with my desire comply; For all my heart's on fire with love and agony.

When the fisherman heard this, he wept and sighed and lamented; then, recalling what had betided himself in the days of his youth, when love had the mastery over him and transport and love-longing and distraction were sore upon him and the fires of pa.s.sion consumed him, replied with these verses:

Indeed, the lover's excuse is manifest, Wasting of body and streaming tears, unrest, Eyes, in the darkness that waken still, and heart, As 'twere a fire-box, bespeak him love-oppress.

Pa.s.sion, indeed, afflicted me in youth, And I good money from bad learnt then to test.

My soul I bartered, a distant love to win; To gain her favours, I wandered East and West; And eke I ventured my life against her grace And deemed the venture would bring me interest.

For law of lovers it is that whoso buys His love's possession with life, he profits best.

Then he moored his boat to the sh.o.r.e and bade her embark, saying, 'I will carry thee whither thou wilt.' So she embarked and he put off with her; but they had not gone far, before there came out a stern-wind upon the boat and drove it swiftly out of sight of land. The fisherman knew not whither he went, and the wind blew without ceasing three days, at the end of which time it fell, by leave of G.o.d the Most High, and they sailed on, till they came in sight of a city builded upon the seash.o.r.e, and the fisherman set about making fast to the land.

Now the King of the city, a very powerful prince called Dirbas, was at that moment sitting, with his son, at a window in the palace giving upon the sea, and chancing to look out to sea-ward, they saw the fis.h.i.+ng-boat enter the harbour. They observed it narrowly and espied therein a young lady, as she were the full moon in the mid-heaven, with pendants in her ears of fine bala.s.s rubies and a collar of precious stones about her neck. So the King knew that this must be the daughter of some king or great n.o.ble, and going forth of the sea-gate of the palace, went down to the boat, where he found the lady asleep and the fisherman busied in making fast to the sh.o.r.e. He went up to her and aroused her, whereupon she awoke, weeping; and he said to her, 'Whence comest thou and whose daughter art thou and what brings thee hither?' 'I am the daughter of Ibrahim, Vizier to King Shamikh,' answered she; 'and the manner of my coming hither is strange and the cause thereof extraordinary.'

And she told him her whole story, hiding nought from him; then she sighed deeply and recited the following verses:

Tears have mine eyelids wounded sore, and wonder-fast they flow Adown my cheek for parting's pain and memory and woe, For a beloved's sake, who dwells for ever in my heart, Though to foregather with himself I cannot win, heigho!

Fair, bright and brilliant is his face, in loveliness and grace, Turk, Arab and barbarian he cloth indeed o'ercrow.

The full moon and the sun contend in deference to him, And when he rises into sight, they, lover-like, bend low.

His eyes with wondrous witchery are decked, as 'twere with kohl; Even as a bow, that's bent to shoot its shafts, to thee they show.

O thou, to whom I have perforce revealed my case, have ruth On one with whom the s.h.i.+fts of love have sported long eno'.

Lo, broken-hearted, Love hath cast me up upon thy coast, Wherefore I trust that thou on me fair favour wilt bestow.

The n.o.ble who, when folk of worth alight within their bounds, Do honour and protect them, win increase of glory so.

Cover thou then, my lord, my hope, two lovers' follies up And let them to thy succouring hand their loves' reunion owe.

Then she shed plenteous tears and recited these verses also:

I lived, a marvel till I saw in love, then lived no mo'; Each month to thee as Rejeb[FN#81] be, as free from fear of foe!

Is it not strange that, on the morn they went away, I lit Fire in my vitals with the tears that from mine eyes did flow?

Indeed, mine eyelids ran with blood, and on the wasted plain Of my sad cheek, that therewithal was watered, gold did grow.

Yea, for the safflower hue, that thence o'erspread my cheeks, they seem The s.h.i.+rt of Joseph, steeped in blood, to make a lying show.

When the King heard this, he was certified of her pa.s.sion and love-longing and was moved to compa.s.sion for her; so he said to her, 'Fear nothing and be not troubled; thou hast attained the term of thy wishes; for needs must I bring thee to thy desire.'

And he recited the following verses:

Daughter if n.o.bles, thou hast reached thy wishes' goal, I trow: In happy presage then rejoice and fear not any woe.