The Arabian Nights (New Deluxe Edition) (22 page)

But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then her sister said, “Sister, what an 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, “For God's sake, sister, if you are not sleepy, tell us one of your lovely little tales.” King Shahrayar added, “Tell us the rest of the story of the king's son.” Shahrazad replied, “With the greatest pleasure”:

I heard, O happy King, that the first dervish said to the girl:

After I followed his instructions, I returned, suffering from a hangover, and spent the night in one of my uncle's houses, which he had given me to use before he went on a hunting trip. When I woke up in the morning and recalled the events of the previous night, I thought that it was all a dream. Being in doubt, I inquired about my cousin, but no one could tell me anything about him. Then I went to the graveyard and searched for the sepulcher, but I could not find it or remember anything about it. I kept wandering from sepulcher to sepulcher and from tomb to tomb, without stopping to eat or drink, until night set in. I was getting worried about my cousin, and as I wondered where the vaulted staircase led to, I began to recall the events little by little, as one recalls what happens in a dream. Finally I went back to the house, ate a little, and spent a restless night. Having recollected everything he and I did that night, I returned the following morning to the graveyard and wandered about, searching till nightfall, without finding the sepulcher or figuring out a way that might lead me to it. I went back to the graveyard for a third day and a fourth and searched for the sepulcher from early morning till nightfall without success, until I almost lost my sanity with frustration and worry. At last, realizing that I had no other recourse, I resolved to go back to my father's city.

When I arrived there and entered the city gate, I was immediately set upon, beaten, and bound. When I inquired, asking, “What is the cause?” I was told, “The vizier has plotted against your father and betrayed him. Being in league with the entire army, he has killed your father and usurped his power and ordered us to lie in wait for you.” Then they carried me off in a swoon and brought me before him. O great lady, it so happened that the vizier and I were bitter enemies, for I was the cause of tearing out one of his eyes. Being fond of shooting with the crossbow, I stood one day on my palace roof, when a bird alighted at the palace of the vizier, who by coincidence also stood on his palace roof. When I shot at the bird, the missile missed him and instead hit the vizier and pierced the corner of his eye, and that was the cause of his grudge against me; therefore, when they brought me before him, he thrust his finger into my eye, gouged it out, and made it ooze over my cheek. Then he bound me, placed me in a chest, and handed me over to my father's swordsman, saying, “Ride your horse, draw your sword, and take this one with you into the wilderness. Then kill him and let the beasts and vultures devour his flesh.” The executioner followed the vizier's order and led me into the wilderness. Then he dismounted, taking me out of the chest, and looked at me and was about to kill me. I wept bitterly over what had happened to me until I made him weep with me. Then looking at him, I began to recite the following verses:

My shield I deemed you from the foeman's dart,

But you did prove to be that very dart.

I counted on your aid in all mishaps,

Just as the left hand comes to aid the right.

Stand then as one absolved, away from me,

And let the foes at me their arrows aim,

For if our friendship you cannot maintain,

Between yourself and me there is no claim.

When the executioner heard my verses, he felt pity for me, and he spared me and set me free, saying, “Run with your life and never return to this land, for they will kill you and kill me with you.” The poet says:

If you suffer injustice, save yourself,

And leave the house behind to mourn its builder.

Your country you'll replace by another,

But for yourself, you'll find no other self.

Nor with a mission trust another man,

For none is as loyal as you yourself.

And did the lion not struggle by himself,

He would not prowl with such a mighty mane.

Hardly believing in my escape, I kissed his hand and thought that losing my eye was certainly better than dying.

Then I journeyed slowly until I reached my uncle's city. When I went to him and told him about my father's death and the loss of my eye, he said to me, “I too have enough woes, for my son is missing, and I do not know what has happened to him, nor do I have any news about him.” Then he wept bitterly, reviving my old grief and arousing my pity. Unable to remain silent, I acquainted him with what his son had done, and he was exceedingly happy and said, “Come and show me the sepulcher.” I replied, “By God, uncle, I have lost the way to it, and I no longer know which one it is.” He said, “Let us go together.” Then he and I went secretly to the graveyard, and when I came to the center, I suddenly recognized the sepulcher and was exceedingly happy at the prospect of finding out what lay below the staircase and what had happened to my cousin. We entered the sepulcher, opened the tomb, and, removing the earth, found the iron plate. My uncle led the way, and we descended about fifty steps, and as we reached the bottom of the staircase, we met a great cloud of smoke that almost blinded our eyes. My uncle cried, “There is no power and no strength, save in God, the Almighty, the Magnificent.” Then we saw a hallway, and as we advanced a little, we came to a hall resting on pillars and lighted by very high skylights. We wandered about and saw a cistern in the center, saw large jars and sacks full of flour, grains, and the like, and at the end of the hall saw a bed covered with a canopy. My uncle went up to the bed, and when he lifted the curtain, he found his son and the lady who had gone down with him, lying in each other's arms, but saw that the two had turned to black charcoal. It was as if they had been cast into a raging fire, which burned them thoroughly until they were reduced to charcoal. When my uncle saw this spectacle, he expressed satisfaction and spat in his son's face, saying, “This is your punishment in this world, but there remains your punishment in the world to come.” Then he took off his shoe and struck his son, hard on the face.

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

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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.” The king added, “Let it be the completion of the first dervish's tale.” Shahrazad replied, “With the greatest pleasure”:

I heard, O happy King, that the first dervish said to the girl:

My lady, when my uncle struck his son's face with the shoe, as he and the lady lay there in a charred heap, I said to him, “For God's sake, uncle, don't make me feel worse; I feel worried and sorry for what happened to your son; yet as if he has not suffered enough, you strike him on the face with your shoe.” He replied, “Nephew, you should know that this son of mine was madly in love with his sister, and I often forbade him from seeing her but went on saying to myself, ‘They are only children.' But when they grew up, they did the ugly deed and I heard about it, hardly believing my ears. I seized him and beat him mercilessly, saying, ‘Beware, beware of that deed, lest our story spread far and wide even to every remote province and town and you be dishonored and disgraced among the kings, to the end of time. Beware, beware, for this girl is your sister, and God has forbidden her to you.' Then, nephew, I secluded her from him, but the cursed girl was in love with him, for the devil had possessed her and made the affair attractive in her eyes. When they saw that I had separated them from each other, he built and prepared this subterranean place, dug up the well, and brought whatever they needed of provisions and the like, as you see. Then, taking advantage of my going to the hunt, he took his sister and did what you saw him do. He believed that he would be enjoying her for a long time and that the Almighty God would not be mindful of their deed.” Then he wept, and I wept with him. Then he looked at me and said, “You are my son in his place,” and when he thought of what had happened to his two children, his brother's murder, and the loss of my eye, he wept again and I wept with him over the trials of life and the misfortunes of this world. Then we climbed out of the tomb and I replaced the iron plate cover over my cousin and his sister, and without being detected by anyone, we returned home.

But hardly had we sat down when we heard the sounds of kettledrums, little drums, and trumpets, the din of men, the clanking of bits, the neighing of horses, and the orders to line up for battle, while the world became clouded with dust raised by the galloping of horses and the tramping of men. We were bewildered and startled, and when we asked, we were told that the vizier who had usurped my father's kingdom had levied his soldiers and prepared his armies, and taking a host of bedouins
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into service, had invaded us with armies like the desert sand, whom no one could count and no one could withstand. They took the city by surprise, and the citizens, being unable to oppose them, surrendered the place to the vizier. My uncle was slain and I escaped to the outskirts of the city, thinking to myself, “If I fall into the vizier's hands, he will kill me and kill Sayir, my father's swordsman.” My sorrows were renewed and my anxiety grew, as I pondered over what had happened to my uncle and my cousins and over the loss of my eye, and I wept bitterly. I asked myself, “What is to be done? If I show myself in public, the people of my city and all my father's soldiers will recognize me as they recognize the sun and will try to win favor with the vizier by killing me.” I could think of no way to escape and save my life except to shave my beard and eyebrows. I did so, changed my clothes for those of a mendicant, and assumed the life of a dervish. Then I left the city, undetected by anyone, and journeyed to this country, with the intention of reaching Baghdad, hoping that I might be fortunate to find someone who would assist me to the presence of the Commander of the Faithful, the Vice Regent of the Supreme Lord, so that I might tell him my tale and lay my case before him. I arrived this very night, and as I stood in doubt at the city gate, not knowing where I should go, this dervish by my side approached me, showing the signs of travel, and greeted me. I asked him, “Are you a stranger?” and when he replied, “Yes,” I said, “I too am a stranger.” As we were talking, this other dervish by our side joined us at the gate, greeted us, and said, “I am a stranger.” We replied, “We are strangers too.” Then the three of us walked as night overtook us, three strangers who did not know where to go. But God drove us to your house, and you were kind and generous enough to let us in and help me forget the loss of my eye and the shaving off of my beard.

The girl said to him, “Stroke your head and go.” He replied, “By God, I will not go until I hear the tales of the others.”

But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then Dinarzad said, “Sister, what an entertaining story!” Shahrazad replied, “What is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night if the king spares me and lets me live!” The king said to himself, “By God, I shall postpone her execution until I hear the tales of the dervishes and the girls, then have her put to death like the rest.”