The Arabian Nights (New Deluxe Edition) (32 page)

At midnight I heard a sweet voice chanting the Quran. I rose, glad to hear someone, and followed the voice until I came to a chamber, whose door stood ajar. I peered through and saw what looked like a place of worship and recitation, with a prayer niche lighted with hanging lamps and two candles. On a prayer carpet stood a section of the Quran set on a stand, and on the carpet sat a handsome young man reciting the Holy Book. I was amazed to find that this young man was the only one among the people of the city to have escaped the curse and thought that there was a mystery behind this. I opened the door and, entering the chamber, greeted him and said, “Blessed be God who has granted you to me, to be the cause of our deliverance and help our ship return to our native land. O holy man, by the Holy Book you are reciting, answer my question.” He looked at me with a smile and said, “O good woman, tell me first what caused you to come here, and I shall relate to you what happened to me and to the people of this city and why they were cursed while I was not.” I told him our story and how our ship had strayed for twenty days. Then I questioned him again about the city and its people, and he replied, “O sister, be patient, and I shall tell you.” Then he closed the Quran, put it aside, and seated me, O Commander of the Faithful . . .

But morning overtook Shahrazad, and Dinarzad said, “O sister, what a strange and entertaining story!” Shahrazad replied, “Sister, what is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night if the king spares me and lets me live!”

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The following night Shahrazad said:

It is related, O happy King, that the girl who was the mistress of the house said to the caliph:

O Commander of the Faithful, the young man placed the Quran in the prayer niche and seated me by his side. When I looked at him, I saw a face as beautiful as the full moon, like the one of whom the poet said:

The stargazer one night charted the stars

And saw his fair form shining like a moon

Who vied in brilliance with the hiding sun

And left in darkness the bewildered moon.

It was a face on which the supreme God has bestowed the robe of beauty, which was embroidered with the grace of his perfect cheeks. He was like the one of whom the poet said:

By his enchanting eyelids and his slender waist,

By his beguiling eyes so keen, so fair,

By his sharp glances and his tender sides,

By his white forehead and his jet black hair,

By eyebrows that have robbed my eyes of sleep

And made me subject to their mighty will,

By lovely sidelocks that curl, coil, and charm

And all rejected lovers with their beauty kill,

By the soft myrtle of his rosy cheeks,

By his carnelian lips and mouth of pearls,

Which sends the fragrance of the honey breath,

And the sweet wine which in its sweetness purls,

By his graceful neck and his boughlike frame,

Which bears two pomegranates on the breast,

By his charming, tender, and slender waist,

And hips that quiver while they move or rest,

By his soft silky skin and charming touch

And all the beauty that his own does seem,

By his open hand and his truthful tongue,

And noble pedigree and high esteem,

By these I swear that his life-giving breath

Gives the musk being and perfumes the air,

That the sun pales before him and the moon

Is nothing but a paring of his nail; I swear.

O Commander of the Faithful, I looked at him and sighed, for he had captivated my heart. I said to him, “O my dear lord, tell me the story of your city.” He said, “O woman of God, this city is the capital of my father the king whom you must have seen turned into black stone inside this cursed palace, together with my mother the queen whom you found inside the net. They and all the people of the city were Magians
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who, instead of the Omnipotent Lord, worshiped the fire, to which they prayed and by which they swore. My father, who had been blessed with me late in life, reared me in affluence, and I grew and throve. It happened that there lived with us a very old woman who used to teach me the Quran, saying, ‘“You should worship none but the Almighty God,”' and I learned the Quran without telling my father or the rest of my family. One day we heard a mighty voice proclaiming, ‘O people of this city, leave your fire worship and worship the Merciful God.' But they refused to obey. A year later the voice cried out again and did the same the following year. Suddenly one morning the city turned into stone, and none was saved except myself. Here I sit now, as you see, to worship God, but I have grown weary of loneliness, for there is none to keep me company.”

I said to him (for he had captured my heart and mastered my life and soul), “Come with me to the city of Baghdad, for this girl standing before you is the head of her family, mistress over servants and slaves, and a businesswoman of considerable wealth, part of which is on the very ship that, after straying, now anchors outside your city, by the will of God who drove us here that I might meet you.” I continued to press him, O Commander of the Faithful, until he consented. I spent that night, hardly believing my fortune, asleep at his feet. When morning dawned, we rose and, taking from his father's treasure chambers whatever was light in weight and great in worth, the two of us went from the castle to the city and found the captain, my sisters, and my servants looking for me. When they saw me, they were happy, and when I related to them the story of the young man and the city, they were amazed. But when my two sisters, these very bitches, saw the young man with me, they envied me, O Commander of the Faithful, and harbored ill feelings toward me. Then we went aboard, all of us feeling happy at our gain, most of all I, because of the young man, and sat waiting for the wind to blow before setting sail.

But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then Dinarzad said, “O sister, what a strange and entertaining story!” Shahrazad replied, “What is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow if the king spares me and lets me live!”

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The following night Shahrazad said:

It is related, O happy King, that the girl who was the mistress of the house said to the caliph:

O Commander of the Faithful, when the wind began to blow, we set sail, and, as we sat chatting, my sisters asked me, “Sister, what will you do with this young man?” I replied, “I will make him my husband.” Then I turned to him and said, “O my lord, I want you to follow my wish that when we reach Baghdad, our native city, I offer you myself in marriage as your maidservant, and we will be husband and wife.” The young man replied, “Yes, indeed, for you are my lady and my mistress, and I will obey you in everything.” Then I turned to my sisters and said, “Whatever goods we have brought are yours; my only reward is this young man; he is mine and I am his.” But my sisters turned green with envy over him and harbored ill feelings toward me. We sailed on under a fair wind until we entered the Sea of Safety and began to approach Basra. When night came, and the young man and I fell asleep, my two sisters, who had been waiting patiently, carried me with my bed and threw me into the sea. They did the same thing to the young man. He drowned, but I was saved; I wish that I had drowned with him. I was cast on a raised island, and when I came to myself and saw myself surrounded by water, I realized that my sisters had betrayed me, and I thanked God for my safety. Meantime, the ship sailed on like a flash of lightning, while I stood alone through the night.

When morning dawned, I saw a dry strip of land connecting the island to the shore. I crossed it; then I wrung out my clothes and spread them to dry in the sun. When they were dry, I ate some dates and drank some fresh water I had found there; then I proceeded to walk until there remained only two hours between me and the city. As I sat to rest, I suddenly saw a long serpent, as thick as the trunk of a palm tree, gliding sideways and sweeping the sand in her way, as she speeded toward me. When she drew near, I saw that she was being pursued by a long and slender serpent, as slender as a spear and as long as two. He had seized her by the tail, while she, with a tongue about ten inches long, rolling in the dust, and eyes streaming with tears, wriggled right and left, trying to escape. Feeling pity for her, O Commander of the Faithful, I ran toward a big stone, picked it up, and calling on God for help, hit him with it and killed him. As soon as he rolled dead, the serpent opened a pair of wings, flew up, and disappeared from my sight.

Then I sat down to rest and dozed off, and when I awoke, I saw a black girl, together with two bitches, sitting at my feet, massaging them. Sitting up, I asked, “O friend, who are you?” She replied, “How soon you have forgotten me. I am she for whom you have done the good deed and sowed the seed of gratitude. I am the serpent who was in distress until it pleased you, with the help of the Almighty God, to kill my foe. In order to reward you, I hurried after the ship and carried to your house everything that belonged to you. Then I ordered my attendants to sink the ship, for I knew how you had been kind to your sisters all your life and how they had treated you, how out of envy over the young man, they threw you both into the sea and caused him to drown. Here they are, these two black bitches, and I swear by the Creator of the heavens that if you disobey my command, I will take you and imprison you under the earth.” Then the girl shook and, turning into a bird, picked up me and my two sisters and flew up with us until she set us down in my house, where I found all my property, which she had brought from the ship. Then she said to me, “I swear by ‘Him who made the two seas flow'—this is my second oath—that if you disobey my command, I will turn you into a bitch like them. I charge you to give them every night three hundred blows with the rod, as a punishment for what they did.” I replied, “I shall obey,” and she departed and left me. Since that time, I have been forced to punish them every night until they bleed. I feel very sorry for them, and, knowing that I am not to blame for their punishment, they forgive me. This is the cause of my beating them and crying with them, and this is my story and the end of my history.

When she finished, the caliph was greatly amazed. Then the Commander of the Faithful ordered Ja'far to ask the second girl to explain to them the cause of the rod marks on her sides and chest. She said:

O Commander of the Faithful, when my father died . . .

But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then her sister said, “O 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!”

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