The Arabian Nights (New Deluxe Edition) (20 page)

But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then her sister Dinarzad said, “Sister, what a lovely and entertaining story!” Shahrazad replied, “What is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night if I live!”

T
HE
T
HIRTY
-T
HIRD
N
IGHT

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”:

I heard, O King, that the dervishes, heated with the wine, called for musical instruments, and the doorkeeper brought them a tambourine, a flute, and a Persian harp. The dervishes rose, and one took the tambourine, another the flute, another the Persian harp, tuned their instruments, and began to play and sing, and the girls began to sing with them until it got very loud. While they were thus playing and singing, they heard a knocking at the door and the doorkeeper went to see what was the matter.

Now the cause of that knocking, O King, was that it happened on that very night that the Caliph Harun al-Rashid and Ja'far
⁸
came into the city, as they used to do every now and then, and as they walked through, they passed by the door and heard the music of the flute, the harp, and the tambourine, the singing of the girls, and the sounds of people partying and laughing. The caliph said, “Ja'far, I would like to enter this house and visit the people inside.” Ja'far replied, “O Prince of the Faithful, these are people who are intoxicated and who do not know who we are, and I fear that they may insult us and abuse us.” The caliph said, “Don't argue; I must go in and I want you to find a pretext to get us in.” Ja'far replied, “I hear and obey.” Then Ja'far knocked at the door, and when the doorkeeper came and opened the door, he stepped forward, kissed the ground before her, and said, “O my lady, we are merchants from the city of Mosul, and we have been in Baghdad for ten days. We have brought with us our merchandise and have taken lodgings at an inn. Tonight a merchant of your city invited us to his home and offered us food and drink. We drank and enjoyed ourselves and sent for a troop of musicians and singing women and invited the rest of our companions to join us. They all came and we had a good time, listening to the girls blow on the flutes, beat the tambourines, and sing, but while we were enjoying ourselves, the prefect of the police raided the place, and we tried to escape by jumping from walls. Some of us broke our limbs and were arrested, while some escaped safely. We have come now to seek refuge in your house, for, being strangers in your city, we are afraid that if we continue to walk the streets, the prefect of the police will stop us, discover that we are intoxicated, and arrest us. If we go to the inn, we shall find the door locked for, as is the rule, it is not to be opened till sunrise. As we passed by your house, we heard the sounds of music and the noise of a lovely party and hoped that you would be kind enough to let us join you to enjoy the rest of the night, giving us the chance to pay you for our share. If you refuse our company, let us sleep in the hallway till the morning, and God will reward you. The matter is in your magnanimous hands and the decision is yours, but we will not depart from your door.”

After the doorkeeper had listened to Ja'far's speech, looked at their dress, and seen that they were respectable, she went back to her sisters and repeated Ja'far's story. The girls felt sorry for them and said, “Let them in,” and she invited them to come in. When the caliph, together with Ja'far and Masrur,
⁹
entered the hall, the entire group, the girls, the dervishes, and the porter, rose to greet them, and then everyone sat down.

But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then Dinarzad said, “What a lovely and entertaining story!” Shahrazad replied, “What is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night if I stay alive!”

T
HE
T
HIRTY
-F
OURTH
N
IGHT

The following night Dinarzad said to her sister Shahrazad, “Please, if you are not sleepy, tell us the rest of the story of the three girls.” Shahrazad replied, “Very well”:

It is related, O King, that when the caliph, together with Ja'far and Masrur, entered and sat down, the girls turned to them and said, “You are welcome, and we are delighted to have you as our guests, but on one condition?” They asked, “What is your condition?” The girls replied, “That you will be eyes without tongues and will not inquire about whatever you see. You will ‘speak not of what concerns you not, lest you hear what pleases you not.'” They replied, “Yes, as you wish, for we have no need to meddle.” Pleased with them, the girls sat to entertain them, drinking and conversing with them. The caliph was astonished to see three dervishes, all blind in the right eye, and he was especially astonished to see girls with such beauty, charm, eloquence, and generosity, in such a lovely place, with a music band consisting of three one-eyed dervishes. But he felt that at that moment he could not ask any questions. They continued to converse and drink, and then the dervishes rose, bowed, and played another round of music; then they sat down and passed the cup around.

When the wine had taken hold, the mistress of the house rose, bowed, and, taking the shopper by the hand, said, “Sister, let us do our duty.” Both sisters replied, “Very well.” The doorkeeper got up, cleared the table, got rid of the peels and shells, replenished the incense, and cleared the middle of the hall. Then she made the dervishes sit on a sofa at one side of the hall and seated the caliph, Ja'far, and Masrur on another sofa at the other side of the hall. Then she shouted at the porter, saying, “You are very lazy. Get up and lend us a hand, for you are a member of the household.” The porter got up and, girding himself, asked, “What is up?” She replied, “Stand where you are.” Then the shopper placed a chair in the middle of the hall, opened a cupboard, and said to the porter, “Come and help me.” When the porter approached, he saw two black female hounds with chains around their necks. He took them and led them to the middle of the hall. Saying, “It is time to perform our duty,” the mistress of the house came forward, rolled up her sleeves, took a braided whip, and called to the porter, “Bring me one of the bitches.” The porter dragged one of the bitches by the chain and brought her forward, while she wept and shook her head at the girl. As the porter stood holding the chain, the girl came down on the bitch with hard blows on the sides, while the bitch howled and wept. The girl kept beating the bitch until her arm got weary. Then she stopped, threw the whip away, and, taking the chain from the porter, embraced the bitch and began to cry. The bitch too began to cry, and the two cried together for a long time. Then the girl wiped the bitch's tears with her handkerchief, kissed her on the head, and said to the porter, “Take her back to her place, and bring me the other.” The porter took the bitch to the cupboard and brought the other bitch to the girl, who did to her as she had done to the first, beating her until she fainted. Then she took the bitch, cried with her, kissed her on the head, and asked the porter to take her back to her sister, and he took her back. When those who were present saw what happened, how the girl beat the bitch until the bitch fainted, and how she cried with the bitch and kissed her on the head, they were completely amazed and began to speak under their breath. The caliph himself felt troubled and lost all patience as he burned with curiosity to know the story of these two bitches. He winked to Ja'far, but Ja'far, turning to him, said with a sign, “This is not the time to inquire.”

O happy King, when the girl finished punishing the two bitches, the doorkeeper said to her, “My lady, go and sit on your couch, so that I in turn may fulfill my desire.” Saying, “Very well,” the girl went to the far end of the hall and seated herself on the couch, with the caliph, Ja'far, and Masrur seated in a row to her right and the dervishes and the porter, to her left, and although the lamps glowed, the candles burned, and the incense filled the place, these men were depressed and felt that their evening was spoiled. Then the doorkeeper sat on the chair.

But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then Dinarzad said to her sister, “Sister, what an amazing and entertaining story!” Shahrazad replied, “What is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night if I live!”

T
HE
T
HIRTY
-F
IFTH
N
IGHT

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, “Very well”:

I heard, O happy King, that the doorkeeper sat on the chair and said to her sister the shopper, “Get up and pay me my due.” The shopper rose, entered a chamber, and soon brought back a bag of yellow satin with two green silk tassels ornamented with red gold and two beads of pure ambergris. She sat in front of the doorkeeper, drew a lute out of the bag, and with its side resting on her knee, held it in her lap. Then she tuned the lute and, plucking the strings with her fingertips, began to play and sing the following verses of the
Kan wa Kan
variety:
¹

My love, you are my aim,

And you are my desire.

Your company is constant joy,

Your absence, hellish fire.

You are the madness of my life,

My one infatuation,

A love in which there is no shame,

A blameless adoration.

The shirt of agony I wore

Revealed my secret passion,

Betrayed my agitated heart

And left me in confusion.

My tears to all declared my love,

As o'er my cheeks they flowed,

My treacherous tears betrayed me

And all my secrets showed.

O, cure me from my dire disease;

You are the sickness and the cure,

But he whose remedy you are

Will suffer evermore.

Your brilliant eyes have wasted me,

Your jet-black hair has me in thrall,

Your rosy cheeks have vanquished me

And told my tale to all.

My hardship is my martyrdom,

The sword of love, my death.

How often have the best of men

This way ended their breath?

I will not cease from loving you,

Nor unlock what is sealed.

Love is my law and remedy,

Whether hid or revealed.

Blessed my eyes that gazed on you,

O treasured revelation;

Which has left me confused, alone,

In helpless adoration.

When the girl finished the poem, her sister let out a loud cry and moaned, “Oh, oh, oh!” Then she grabbed her dress by the collar and tore it down to the hem, baring her entire body, and fell down in a swoon. When the caliph looked at her, he saw that her whole body, from her head to her toe, bore the marks of the whip, which left it black and blue. Seeing the girl's condition and not knowing the cause, he and his companions were troubled, and he said to Ja'far, “By God, I will not wait a moment until I get to the bottom of this and ask for an explanation for what has happened, the flogging of the girl, the whipping of the two bitches, then the crying and the kissing.” Ja'far replied, “My lord, this is not the time to ask for an explanation, especially since they have imposed on us the condition that we speak not of what concerns us not, for ‘he who speaks of what concerns him not hears what pleases him not.'”