The Arabian Nights (New Deluxe Edition) (39 page)

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HE
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IGHTIETH
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IGHT

The following night Shahrazad said:

It is related, O King, that Ja'far said to the caliph:

As Badr al-Din Hasan sat on the bench next to the hunchback, the attendants emerged with his cousin. They had combed her hair and, inserting sacks of musk, braided her tresses, and after they had perfumed her with the incense of cardamon and ambergris, they decked her with robes and jewelry worthy of the Persian kings. She paraded in a robe embroidered in gold with dazzling figures of all kinds of birds and beasts, with eyes and bills of precious stones and feet of rubies and green beryl. She wore a very rare and precious necklace, set with large, round gems that dazzled the eye and staggered the mind. As the attendants led the way with lighted camphor candles, her face shone under the candlelight, looking more brilliant than the full moon when it shines on the fourteenth night. With eyes sharper than a bare sword, lashes that captivate the heart, rosy cheeks, and a swinging gait, she advanced, dazzling the eyes with beauty beyond description. The singing women received her by playing on the tambourines and all sorts of musical instruments. Meanwhile, Badr al-Din Hasan al-Basri sat while the women gazed on him, like the moon among the stars, with a radiant brow, a neck as white as marble, a face as bright as the moon, and a rosy cheek graced with a mole like a disk of ambergris.

As the bride approached, swaying gracefully, and unveiled her face, the hunchback rose and bent to kiss her, but she turned her head from him, slipped away, and stood before Badr al-Din Hasan, her cousin, causing the singing women to cry out aloud and the people to clamor. Badr al-Din Hasan put his hand in his pocket and, again finding it full of dinars, took out a handful and cast it in the singing women's tambourines, and he kept taking out handfuls and throwing them to them, while they commended him to God and signaled to him with their fingers, meaning to say, “We wish that this bride was yours.” And as every woman at the wedding gazed on him, he smiled, while the hunchback sat alone like a monkey. Then Badr al-Din Hasan began to move excitedly, surrounded by servants and slave-girls, who were carrying on their heads large trays full of gold pieces and dinars, part as a gift for the bride, part for distribution to the public. When the bride made her way to him and stood before him, he kept staring at her, contemplating the beauty that God had bestowed on her alone, while the servants scattered the gold pieces over the heads of the young and the old. And he was happy and rejoiced at what he saw.

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

T
HE
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IGHTY
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IRST
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IGHT

The following night Shahrazad said:

It is related, O King, that Ja'far said to the caliph:

The attendants presented the bride, in her first dress,
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as she swayed coquettishly, to the delight and amazement of Badr al-Din Hasan and everyone present. When he looked at his cousin in her red satin dress and saw her blooming radiant face, he was happy and rejoiced at what he saw, for she was like the one of whom the excellent poet said:

Like the sun above a reed in the dunes, she flamed,

Clad in a pomegranate red attire,

And offered me the bounty of her cheeks

And her lips' wine to quench my burning fire.

Then they changed her dress and put on a blue one, and she reappeared like the shining moon, with jet black hair, soft cheeks, smiling mouth, swelling bosom, firm wrists, and opulent limbs. She was like her of whom the noble poet said:

She came in lapis blue, O heavenly sight,

A moon of summer on a winter's night.

Then they clad her with another dress and, letting down her long tresses, which were as black as the deep night, veiled her face with her abundant hair, save for her eyes, which pierced the hearts with their keen arrows. She was like her of whom the poet said:

Veiling her cheeks with hair, she came to charm,

And like a dove appeared to lovers' harm.

I said, “You veil the morning with the night.”

Said she, “No, 'tis the moon that I veil from the light.”

Then they clad her with the fourth dress, and she reappeared like the rising sun, swaying coquettishly, turning gracefully like a deer, and piercing the hearts with the arrows of her eyes. She was like her of whom the poet said:

The sun of beauty she to all appears,

With coy reserve and with coquettish grace.

And when the sun beholds her radiant smile,

He in the clouds hastens to hide his face.

Then they presented her in the fifth dress, which revealed her wonders, as she swayed her hips and shook her ringlets and curving sidetresses, like a willow bough or a deer bending to drink. She was like her of whom the poet said:

She comes like a full moon on a fair night,

With dainty limbs and with a slender waist,

With eyes that subdue all men with their charm,

With cheeks that vie with rubies at their best.

She trails her jet black hair over her hips;

Beware the serpents of her curls, beware!

Her sides are soft, but alas, alas!

A heart harder than stones lies hidden there.

From arching brows she sends her darting looks,

Which, although distant, never miss the mark.

When I embrace her waist to press her to my heart,

Her swelling breasts repel and push me back.

Ah, how her beauty all outshines, and how

Her fair shape puts to shame the tender bough.

Then they presented her in the sixth dress, which was green. In this she attained the height of beauty, shaming a bronze spear with her slender form and the bending bough with her softness and supple grace and outshining the rising moon with her radiant face. She surpassed every fair woman in the world and broke every heart, as the poet said of one like her:

There was a maid with such polish and grace

That e'en the sun seemed borrowed from her face.

Bedecked in green she came, fair to behold,

As a pomegranate bud the green leaves enfold.

And when we asked, “What do you call this dress?”

She answered in sweet words meant to impress,

“Since I have tortured many with my arts,

In this dress, I call it Breaker of Hearts.”

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

T
HE
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IGHTY
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ECOND
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The following night Shahrazad said:

It is related, O King, that Ja'far said to the caliph:

Whenever the attendants presented the bride in a new dress and brought her before the hunchback, she turned her head from him and, moving away, stood before Badr al-Din Hasan, who took out a handful of gold from his pocket and gave it to the singing women. This went on until she was unveiled in all seven dresses, and the attendants signaled to the guests to depart. Everyone departed, except Badr al-Din and the hunchback, while the attendants took the bride inside to undress her and prepare her for the bridegroom. The hunchback turned to Badr al-Din and said, “You have favored us and cheered us with your presence. Would you please rise and leave us now?” Saying “Very well,” Badr al-Din rose and made his way to the hallway where he was met by the demon and she-demon, who asked, “Where are you going? Wait here, and when the hunchback comes out to go to the privy to relieve himself, go back to the bedroom and lie in the canopied bed, and when the bride comes and speaks to you, say, ‘It is I who am your husband, for the king has planned all this only to laugh at the hunchback, whom we hired for ten dirhams and a bowl of food and then got rid of.' Then proceed to take her virginity and consummate your marriage. We have no sympathy for the hunchback in this matter, for none but you deserves this young woman.”

While they were talking, the hunchback came out and went into the privy. While he sat, defecating so much that the shit kept coming from his ass, the demon suddenly emerged from the water bowl in the privy, in the shape of a black tomcat, and said “Meow, meow.” The hunchback cried, “Away with you, unlucky cat!” But the cat grew and swelled until he became as big as an ass-colt, braying, “Hee-haw, hee-haw!” The hunchback was startled, and in his fear, he smeared his legs with shit, screaming, “O people of the house, help me!” Then the ass grew even bigger and became a buffalo, and in a human voice said, “Damn you, hunchback!” The hunchback quaked and was so terrified that he slipped on the toilet with his clothes on, saying, “Yes, indeed, O king of the buffaloes!” The demon cried out, “Damn you, you mean hunchback! Is the world so small that you had to marry none but my mistress?” The hunchback replied, “My lord, I am not to blame, for they forced me to marry her, and I did not know that she had a buffalo for a lover. What would you like me to do?” The demon said, “I swear to you that if you leave this place or say anything before sunrise, I will wring your neck. As soon as the sun rises, depart and never return to this house or let us hear from you again.” Then the demon seized the hunchback and turned him upside down, with his head stuck in the toilet and his feet up in the air, saying to him, “I will stand here to watch you, and if you try to leave before sunrise, I will seize you by the legs and dash your head against the wall. Be careful with your life.”

So much for the hunchback. As for Badr al-Din Hasan, when the hunchback entered the privy, Badr al-Din went straightaway into the net covering the bed and sat there waiting. Soon the bride came in, accompanied by an old woman who stood at the opening of the net and said, “You misshapen man, take God's gift, you trash!” and departed, while the bride, whose name was Sit al-Husn, entered the bed, and when she saw Badr al-Din Hasan sitting there, she exclaimed, “O my dear, are you still here? By God, I wish that you and the hunchback were partners in me.” When Badr al-Din heard her words, he said, “Sit al-Husn, why should the filthy hunchback share you with me?” Sit al-Husn replied, “Why shouldn't he? Is he not my husband?” Badr al-Din replied, “Lady, God forbid. The wedding was nothing but a masquerade. Haven't you noticed that the attendants, the singing women, and all your relatives presented you to me, while they laughed at him? Your father knows very well that we hired the hunchback for ten dirhams and a bowl of food and then got rid of him.”

When Sit al-Husn heard his words, she laughed and said, “By God, my little lord, you have made me happy and put my heart at ease. Take me and hold me in your lap.” She had no trousers on, so Badr al-Din also took off his trousers and, taking from his belt the purse containing the thousand dinars he had received from the Jew, he wrapped it in his trousers and laid them under the mattress. Then taking off his turban, which he laid over the wrapping cloth on the seat, he remained only in his shirt and skullcap and stood hesitating. But Sit al-Husn drew him to her, saying, “O my love, you are keeping me waiting. Quench my desire with your love and let me enjoy your loveliness!” Then she recited these verses:

For God's sake, rest your legs between my thighs,

For that is all I now want in the world,

And let me hear your voice again, O love!

For I long for you and await your word,

While my right arm, like your own binding lace,

My arm alone, enjoys the tight embrace.

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