The Arabian Nights (New Deluxe Edition) (16 page)

My lord, when I heard the conversation between the two maids, I was extremely angry and I could hardly wait for the night to come. When my wife returned from the bath, we had the meal served but ate very little. Then we retired to my bed and I pretended to drink the contents of the cup, which I poured out, and went to sleep. No sooner had I fallen on my side than my wife said, “Go to sleep, and may you never rise again. By God, your sight disgusts me and your company bores me.” Then she put on her clothes, perfumed herself with burning incense and, taking my sword, girded herself with it. Then she opened the door and walked out. My lord, I got up . . .

But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then Dinarzad said, “O my lady, what an amazing and entertaining story!” Shahrazad replied, “What is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night!”

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The following night Dinarzad said to her sister Shahrazad, “Please, sister, if you are not sleepy, tell us one of your lovely little tales.” Shahrazad replied, “With the greatest pleasure”:

It is related, O King, that the enchanted young man said to the king:

Then I followed her, as she left the palace and traversed my city until she stood at the city gate. There she uttered words I could not understand, and the locks fell off and the gate opened by itself. She went out, and I followed her until she slipped through the trash mounds and came to a hut built with palm leaves, leading to a domed structure built with sun-dried bricks. After she entered, I climbed to the top of the dome, and when I looked inside, I saw my wife standing before a decrepit black man sitting on reed shavings and dressed in tatters. She kissed the ground before him and he raised his head and said, “Damn you, why are you late? My black cousins were here. They played with the bat and ball, sang, and drank brewed liquor. They had a good time, each with his own girlfriend, except for myself, for I refused even to drink with them because you were absent.”

My wife replied, “O my lord and lover, don't you know that I am married to my cousin, who finds me most loathsome and detests me more than anyone else? Were it not for your sake, I would not have let the sun rise before reducing his city to rubble, a dwelling place for the bears and the foxes, where the owl hoots and the crow crows, and would have hurled its stones beyond Mount Qaf.”
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He replied, “Damn you, you are lying. I swear in the name of black chivalry that as of tonight, if my cousins visit me and you fail to be present, I will never befriend you, lie down with you, or let my body touch yours. You cursed woman, you have been playing with me like a piece of marble, and I am subject to your whims, you cursed, rotten woman.” My lord, when I heard their conversation, the world started to turn black before my eyes, and I lost my senses. Then I heard my wife crying and imploring, “O my lover and my heart's desire, if you remain angry at me, whom else have I got, and if you turn me out, who will take me in, O my lord, my lover, and light of my eye?” She kept crying and begging until he was appeased. Then, feeling happy, she took off her outer garments, and asked, “My lord, have you anything for your little girl to eat?” The black man replied, “Open the copper basin,” and when she lifted the lid, she found some leftover fried rat bones. After she ate them, he said to her, “There is some brewed liquor left in that jug. You may drink it.” She drank the liquor and washed her hands and lay beside the black man on the reed shavings. Then she undressed and slipped under his tatters. I climbed down from the top of the dome and, entering through the door, grabbed the sword that my wife had brought with her, and drew it, intending to kill both of them. I first struck the black man on the neck and thought that I had killed him.

But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then Dinarzad said, “Sister, what an entertaining story!” Shahrazad replied, “Tomorrow night I shall tell you something more entertaining if I live!”

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The following night Dinarzad said to her sister Shahrazad, “For God's sake, sister, if you are not sleepy, tell us one of your lovely little tales.” Shahrazad replied, “With the greatest pleasure”:

I heard, O King, that the enchanted young man said to the king:

My lord, I struck the black man on the neck, but failed to cut the two arteries. Instead I only cut into the skin and flesh of the throat and thought that I had killed him. He began to snort violently, and my wife pulled away from him. I retreated, put the sword back in its place, and went back to the city. I entered the palace and went to sleep in my bed till morning. When my wife arrived and I looked at her, I saw that she had cut her hair and put on a mourning dress. She said, “Husband, don't reproach me for what I am doing, for I have received news that my mother has died, that my father was killed in the holy war, and that my two brothers have also lost their lives, one in battle, the other bitten by a snake. I have every reason to weep and mourn.” When I heard what she said, I did not reply, except to say, “I don't reproach you. Do as you wish.”

She mourned for an entire year, weeping and wailing. When the year ended, she said to me, “I want you to let me build inside the palace a mausoleum for me to use as a special place of mourning and to call it the house of sorrows.” I replied, “Go ahead.” Then she gave the order, and a house of mourning was erected for her, with a domed mausoleum and a tomb inside. Then, my lord, she moved the wounded black man to the mausoleum and placed him in the tomb. But, although he was still alive, from the day I cut his throat, he never spoke a word or was able to do her any good, except to drink liquids. She visited him in the mausoleum every day, morning and evening, bringing with her beverages and broth, and she kept at it for an entire year, while I held my patience and left her to her own devices. One day, while she was unaware, I entered the mausoleum and found her crying and lamenting:

When I see your distress,

It pains me, as you see.

And when I see you not,

It pains me, as you see.

O speak to me, my life,

My master, talk to me.

Then she sang:

The day I have you is the day I crave;

The day you leave me is the day I die.

Were I to live in fear of promised death,

I'd rather be with you than my life save.

Then she recited the following verses:

If I had every blessing in the world

And all the kingdom of the Persian king,

If I see not your person with my eyes,

All this will not be worth an insect's wing.

When she stopped crying, I said to her, “Wife, you have mourned and wept enough and further tears are useless.” She replied, “Husband, do not interfere with my mourning. If you interfere again, I will kill myself.” I kept quiet and left her alone, while she mourned, wept, and lamented for another year. One day, after the third year, feeling the strain of this drawn-out, heavy burden, something happened to trigger my anger, and when I returned, I found my wife in the mausoleum, beside the tomb, saying, “My lord, I have not had any word from you. For three years I have had no reply.” Then she recited the following verses:

O tomb, O tomb, has he his beauties lost,

Or have you lost yourself that radiant look?

O tomb, neither a garden nor a star,

The sun and moon at once how can you host?

These verses added anger to my anger, and I said to myself, “Oh, how much longer shall I endure?” Then I burst out with the following verses:

O tomb, O tomb, has he his blackness lost,

Or have you lost yourself that filthy look?

O tomb, neither a toilet nor a heap of dirt,

Charcoal and mud at once how can you host?

When my wife heard me, she sprang up and said, “Damn you, dirty dog. It was you who did this to me, wounded my beloved, and tormented me by depriving me of his youth, while he has been lying here for three years, neither alive nor dead.” I said to her, “You, dirtiest of whores and filthiest of all venal women who ever desired and copulated with black slaves, yes it was I who did this to him.” Then I grabbed my sword and drew it to strike her. But when she heard me and realized that I was determind to kill her, she laughed and said, “Get away, you dog. Alas, alas, what is done cannot be undone; nor will the dead come back to life, but God has delivered into my hand the one who did this to me and set my heart ablaze with the fire of revenge.” Then she stood up, uttered words I could not understand, and cried, “With my magic and cunning, be half man, half stone.” Sir, from that instant, I have been as you now see me, dejected and sad, helpless and sleepless, neither living with the living nor dead among the dead.

But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then Dinarzad said, “Sister, what an amazing and entertaining story!” Shahrazad replied, “Tomorrow night I shall tell you something more entertaining if the king spares me and lets me live!”

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The following night Dinarzad said to her sister Shahrazad, “Sister, if you are not sleepy, tell us one of your lovely little tales to while away the night.” Shahrazad replied, “With the greatest pleasure”:

It is related, O King, that the enchanted young man said to the king:

“After my wife turned me into this condition, she cast a spell on the city, with all its gardens, fields, and markets, the very place where your troops are camping now. My wife turned the inhabitants of my city, who belonged to four sects, Muslims, Magians,
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Christians, and Jews, into fish, the Muslims white, the Magians red, the Christians blue, and the Jews yellow. Likewise, she turned the islands into four hills surrounding the lake. As if what she has done to me and the city is not enough, she strips me naked every day and gives me a hundred lashes with the whip until my back is lacerated and begins to bleed. Then she clothes my upper half with a hairshirt like a coarse rug and covers it with these luxurious garments.” Then the young man burst into tears and recited the following verses:

O Lord, I bear with patience your decree,

And so that I may please you, I endure,

That for their tyranny and unfair use

Our recompense your Paradise may be.

You never let the tyrant go, my Lord;

Pluck me out of the fire, Almighty God.

The king said to the young man, “Young man, you have lifted one anxiety but added another worry to my worries. But where is your wife, and where is the mausoleum with the wounded black man?” The young man replied, “O King, the black slave is lying in the tomb inside the mausoleum, which is in the adjoining room. My wife comes to visit him at dawn every day, and when she comes, she strips me naked and gives me a hundred lashes with the whip, while I cry and scream without being able to stand up and defend myself, since I am half stone, half flesh and blood. After she punishes me, she goes to the black slave to give him beverages and broth to drink. Tomorrow at dawn she will come as usual.” The king replied, “By God, young man, I shall do something for you that will go down in history and commemorate my name.” Then the king sat to converse with the young man until night fell and they went to sleep.