The Arabian Nights (New Deluxe Edition) (40 page)

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The following night Shahrazad said:

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

Badr al-Din Hasan and Sit al-Husn embraced, and he took her virginity and consummated the marriage. Then she placed one arm under his neck and the other under his shoulder, and with neck on neck and cheek on cheek they went to sleep. as if they seemed to say:

Cleave to the one you love and ignore calumny,

For those who envy never favor love.

Two lovers in one bed, no fairer sight

Has mercy's Lord created from above.

Bosom to bosom in each other's arm,

They lie in bliss, clad in their own delight.

For when two hearts unite in love's embrace,

The world and all its chatter seem so trite.

Therefore, if ever you your true love find,

O rare occasion, you should never part,

And you who chide the lovers for their love,

Why not instead reform the wicked heart?

When they were fast asleep, the demon said to the she-demon, “Take up the young man, and let us return him to the place where he was asleep, before morning overtakes us.” The she-demon took up Badr al-Din Hasan, as he lay asleep without trousers clad only in his thin sequin shirt with its Moroccan gold embroidery and in his striped blue skullcap, and flew away with him, while the demon flew by her side. But no sooner had the Glorious and Almighty God bidden the day dawn and the announcers of prayer climbed to the minaret tops to proclaim the Almighty One, than the angels shot the two demons with shooting stars. The demon was consumed by fire while the she-demon was saved by the Almighty God and was able to come down safely with Badr al-Din Hasan, at the very moment when, as fate would have it, she had reached the city of Damascus,
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and there she left him by one of the city gates and departed.

When the day dawned and it was light, the city gate was opened and the people came out and, seeing a handsome young man clad in nothing but a light shirt and a skullcap and snoring as he lay in a deep sleep from the exhaustion of the previous night, the candle procession, the presentation of the bride, and his other activities, said, “Lucky is he with whom he spent the night! He should have waited until the boy put on his clothes.” Another said, “What a pity for such young people! Look at this young man! Perhaps he came out of the tavern, seeking something and, being drunk, fell asleep without clothes, or perhaps he could not find the door of his house and wandered until he came to the city gate and, finding it shut, fell asleep here.” As everyone offered an opinion, the breeze blew and raised his shirt, revealing legs and thighs and belly and navel as clear as crystal and softer than cream. The bystanders cried out, “O lovely, lovely!” and their cries awakened Badr al-Din Hasan al-Basri, who, finding himself lying at the city gate, surrounded by a huge crowd of people, asked in astonishment, “Good people, where am I, and why do you crowd around me?” They replied, “We found you lying here, at the time of the morning call to prayer, and this is all we know about you. Where did you sleep last night?” He replied, “By God, good people, I slept in Cairo last night.” One of them said, “Listen to him!” Another said, “Give him a hard kick!” Another said, “Son, you are mad; how can you sleep in Cairo and wake up in Damascus?”

Badr al-Din replied, “By God, good people, last night I slept in the city of Cairo; yesterday I was in the city of Basra; and this morning I am in Damascus.” One of them said, “By God, this is a good one; by God, this is a good one!” Another said, “Well, well!” Another said, “He is mad,” and everybody began to shout, “He is mad,” thus making him a madman in spite of himself and affirming to each other, “There is no doubt of his madness; what a pity for this young man!” Then they said to him, “Son, return to your senses. Who in the world could be in Basra yesterday, in Cairo last night, and in Damascus this morning?” Badr al-Din Hasan replied, “I was truly a bridegroom in Cairo last night.” They said, “No doubt, you must have dreamt and seen all this in your sleep.” Badr al-Din was no longer sure of himself and began to wonder, but finally said to them, “By God, brothers, it was not in a dream that I went to Cairo and they unveiled the bride before me and before the hunchback. If it was a dream, then where are my gold purse, my dagger, my turban, and my robe?” He was utterly confused.

But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then Dinarzad said to her sister, “What an amazing and 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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The following night Shahrazad said:

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

When the people cried out, “He is mad,” Badr al-Din began to run, and they followed him, shouting, “Madman! Madman!” He entered the city and ran through the markets, with the crowd pressing on him, until he took refuge in a cook's shop. This cook had been a scoundrel and a robber until he repented, became reformed, and opened a cookshop. Yet all the people of Damascus were still frightened by him and afraid of his mischief. When they saw Badr al-Din enter his shop, they retreated, dispersed, and went their ways. The cook looked at Badr al-Din and asked, “Young man, where do you come from?” Badr al-Din told him his story from beginning to end (but there is no point in repeating it here). The cook said, “This is a strange story. Keep it to yourself until God sends you relief, and stay with me in this shop, for I am childless and I will adopt you as my son.” Badr al-Din replied, “Very well,” Then the cook went to the market, bought him some clothes, and had him put them on. Then he took him before witnesses and adopted him formally, and from that day Badr al-Din became known in Damascus as the cook's son, living with him and sitting by the scales in the shop.

So much for Badr al-Din Hasan; as for his cousin Sit al-Husn, when she woke up at dawn and did not find Badr al-Din by her side, she thought that he had gone to the privy. While she was waiting, her father, the Egyptian vizier Shams al-Din Muhammad the brother of Nur Al-Din Ali who was the father of Badr al-Din Hasan, came out, feeling unhappy because of the wrong he had suffered at the hands of the king, who had forced him to marry his daughter to the meanest of servants, a lump of a hunchback. He walked about until he came to his daughter's bed and, standing by the net, called out to his daughter, “Sit al-Husn!” She replied, “Here I am, here I am,” and she came out, with a face that had turned more radiant and beautiful from the embraces of that deerlike Badr al-Din, and kissed her father's hand. He said to her, “You cursed girl, you seem mighty pleased with that abominable hunchback!”

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 live!”

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The following night Shahrazad said:

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

When Sit al-Husn heard her father say to her, “You seem mighty pleased with that abominable hunchback!” she smiled and said, “Stop, father! It was enough what I had suffered yesterday at the hands of the women who taunted me and mocked me with that mean hunchback, who is not worthy even to bring my husband his mule or his shoes. By God, in all my life I have never had a better night than last night. Stop mocking me with the hunchback, whom you had hired to ward off the evil eye from my young bridegroom!” When her father heard what she said, he glared at her and said, “Damn you, what is this talk! Hasn't the hunchback slept with you?” The girl replied, “Stop mentioning the hunchback, that worthless creature! May God curse him. I slept in the lap of none but my true husband, the one with the dark eyes and the arched black eyebrows.” Her father yelled at her, “Damn you, shameless woman! Have you lost your senses?” She replied, “Ah, for God's sake, father, stop torturing me and being hard on me. I swear by God that my husband, who took my virginity and made me pregnant, is a handsome young man, who is in the privy at this very moment.”

Her father went to the privy and there he found the hunchback standing upside down, with his head stuck in the toilet and his feet in the air. The vizier was taken aback and called out, “You hunch back!” The hunchback replied, “Yeah, yeah.” The vizier asked, “Why are you in this position, and who did this to you?” The hunchback replied, “Couldn't you people have found anyone for me to marry except a girl who consorts with buffaloes and takes demons for lovers?”

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 the king spares me and lets me live!”

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The following night Shahrazad said:

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

When the hunchback said to the father of the bride, “Couldn't you people have found anyone for me to marry except a girl who consorts with buffaloes and takes demons for lovers? May God curse the Devil and my wretched lot,” the vizier said to him, “Get up and go!” But the hunchback said, “I am not crazy, for the sun has not risen yet, and I will not go from here until the sun rises. Yesterday I came here to relieve myself when a black tomcat suddenly emerged and screamed at me. Then he kept getting bigger until he was as big as a buffalo and spoke to me in a way that made me obey him. Leave me and go your way, and may God reward you and curse the bride!” But the vizier took him out of the toilet, and the hunchback, in that same condition, went at once to the king and told him what had happened to him at the hands of the demon.