everything in its own stead; after which the Princess took seat beside
the Prince and said to him, “O my lord, hearten our heart and deign
grace to us and honour us by eating with us: this indeed be a day of joy
for my union with thee and for thy lighting this my lodging with the
splendour of thy semblance so bright and thy beauty so rare and for
thine alighting at my home and thine opportune kindness and thine inner
graciousness,[209] O thou unique one of the Age and the Time, and O thou
who hast no peer in our day and our tide.” Now when Yusuf heard the
words of Al-Hayfa he said to her, “Walláhi, O thou who the moons
adornest and who the sun and the daylight shamest, O lady of brow
flower-bright and of stature elegant-slight, O thou who passest in
beauty and comeliness all mortal beings, O thou with smile like water
sweet and mouth-dews like purest spring and of speech the softest, I wot
thou art the lady of goodness and excellence and generosity and
liberality.” Then she again fell to morselling the Prince until they
both had a sufficiency of food, whereupon she bade them fetch water for
washing their hands after meat. And they brought to Yusuf a basin of
glittering gold, when he rejoiced with exceeding exultation the while he
was sunk in meditation, and at times he gazed upon Al-Hayfa and his wits
were bewildered and his senses seduced him to something he would do with
her for the abundance that was in her of beauty and loveliness. But his
reason forbade to him his passion, and quoth he in his mind, “To
everything its own time,”——And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of
day and fell silent and ceased to say her permitted say. Then quoth her
sister Dunyazad, “How sweet is thy story, O sister mine, and how
enjoyable and delectable!” Quoth she, “And where is this compared with
that I would relate to you on the coming night an the King suffer me to
survive?” Now when it was the next night and that was
The Six Hundred and Seventy-sixth Night,
Dunyazad said to her, “Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other
than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching
of this our latter night!” She replied:——With love and good will! It
hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding,
lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and
worthy celebrating, that Yusuf said, “To everything its own time, and
soothly sayeth the old saw, Whoso hurrieth upon a matter ere opportunity
consent shall at last repent.” Now when they brought the basin before
him and therein stood an ewer of chrystal garnished with gold, he looked
at it and saw graven thereupon the following couplets:—
“I’m a Basin gold beautifies ✿ For the hands of the great and the wise:
Abased[210] for the cleansing of palms, ✿ Washing hands with the water
of eyes.”
Thereat he considered the ewer and saw inscribed upon it these lines:—
“O rare the Ewer’s form whereon must dote ✿ Our hearts and pupils of our
eyes fain gloat:
Seems ferly fair to all admiring orbs ✿ You seemly body wi’ the slender
throat.”
And when he had finished washing his hands and had dried them with the
napkins he pointed at them and spoke these couplets:—
“Groweth my love a-heart and how to hide ✿ When o’er the plains of cheek
tear-torrents glide?
I veil what love these sobs and moans betray ✿ With narrowed heart I
spread my patience wide.
O Farer to the fountain,[211] flow these eyes ✿ Nor seek from other
source to be supplied:
Who loveth, veil of Love his force shall reave, ✿ For tears shall tell
his secrets unespied:
I for the love of you ain bye-word grown, ✿ My lords, and driven to the
Desert-side;
While you in heart of me are homed, your home; ✿ And the heart-dweller
kens what there may bide.”
When Prince Yusuf had finished his improvisation and the poetry which he
produced, Princess Al-Hayfa bussed him upon the brow, and he seeing this
waxed dazed of his wits and right judgment fled him and he fell fainting
to the floor for a while of time. And when he came to himself he
pondered how she had entreated him and his Passion would have persuaded
him to do with her somewhat but Reason forbad and with her force he
overcame himself. After his improvising Al-Hayfa again saluted him on
the front and cried, “Indeed thou hast done well in thy words, O thou
with Crescent’s brow!” Presently she came for the table of wine and
filling a cup drank it off; then she crowned another goblet and passed
it to Yusuf who took it and kissed it while she improvised some couplets
as follows:—
“Thy seduction of lips ne’er can I forbear ✿ Nor deny love-confession
for charms so rare:
O thou aim of my eyes, how my longing stay? ✿ O thou tall of form and
long wavy hair?
Thy rose-hued cheek showeth writ new-writ[212] ✿ Dimming wine my cups in
thei rondure bear.”
And presently she added:[213]—
“I hid his phantom, by the Lord, but showed ✿ My looks the blush his
scented cheek had sent:
How veil the joy his love bestows, when I ✿ To blood-red[214] tears on
cheek give open vent,
When his uplighted cheek my heart enfires ✿ As though a-morn in flame my
heart were pent?
By Allah, ne’er my love for you I’ll change ✿ Though change my body and
to change consent.”
And when Al-Hayfa had finished her improvisation and her poetry, Yusuf
drained the goblet and after kissing it returned it to her; but he was
as one a-swoon. Then she took it from him and he recovered and presently
declaimed for her the following couplets:—
“A maiden in your tribe avails my heart with love to fire[215] ✿ And how
can I a hidden bear the love my eyes declare?
The branches of the sand-hill tree remember and recall ✿ What time she
softly bent and showed a grace beyond compare;
And taught me how those eyne o’erguard the roses of her cheek ✿ and knew
to ward them from the hand to cull her charms would dare.”
As soon as Yusuf had finished his improvisation and what of poetry he
had produced, Al-Hayfa took seat by his side and fell to conversing with
him in sweetest words with softest smiles, the while saying, “Fair
welcome to thee, O wonder of beauty and lovesome in eloquence and Oh
charming in riant semblance and lord of high degree and clear nobility:
thou hast indeed illumined our place with the light of thy flower-like
forehead and to our hearts joyance hast thou given and our cares afar
hast thou driven and eke our breasts hast made broad; and this is a day
of festival to laud, so do thou solace our souls and drain of our wine
with us for thou art the bourne and end and aim of our intent.” Then
Al-Hayfa took a cup of chrystal, and crowning it with clear-strained
wine which had been sealed with musk and saffron, she passed it to
Prince Yusuf. He accepted it from her albeit his hand trembled from what
befel him of her beauty and the sweetness of her poetry and her
perfection; after which he began to improvise these couplets:—
“O thou who drainest thy morning wine ✿ With friends in a bower sweet
blooms enshrine—
Place unlike all seen by sight of man ✿ In the lands and gardens of best
design——,
Take gladly the liquor that quivers in cup ✿ And elevates man, this
clean Maid of the Vine:
This goblet bright that goes round the room ✿ Nor Chosroës held neither
Nu’uman’s line.
Drink amid sweet flowers and myrtle’s scent ✿ Orange-bloom and Lily and
Eglantine,
And Rose and Apple whose cheek is dight ✿ In days that glow with a fiery
shine;
’Mid the music of strings and musician’s gear ✿ Where harp and pipe with
the lute combine;—
An I fail to find her right soon shall I ✿ Of parting perish foredeemed
to die!”
Then Al-Hayfa responded to him in the same rhyme and measure and spake
to him as follows:—
“O thou who dealest in written line ✿ Whose nature hiding shall e’er
decline;
And subdued by wine in its mainest might ✿ Like lover drunken by strains
divine,[216]
Do thou gaze on our garden of goodly gifts ✿ And all manner blooms that
in wreaths entwine;
See the birdies warble on every bough ✿ Make melodious music the finest
fine.
And each Pippet pipes[217] and each Curlew cries ✿ And Blackbird and
Turtle with voice of pine;
Ring-dove and Culver, and eke Hazár, ✿ And Katá calling on Quail vicine;
So fill with the mere and the cups make bright ✿ With bestest liquor,
that boon benign;—
This site and sources and scents I espy ✿ With Rizwán’s garden compare
defy.”
And when Al-Hayfa had ended her improvisation and what she had spoken to
him of poetry, and Yusuf had given ear to the last couplet, he was dazed
and amazed and he shrieked aloud and waxed distraught for her and for
the women that were beside and about her, and after the cry he fell
fainting to the ground. But in an hour[218] he came to, when the evening
evened and the wax candles and the chandeliers were lighted, his desire
grew and his patience flew and he would have risen to his feet and
wandered in his craze but he found no force in his knees. So he feared
for himself and he remained sitting as before.——And Shahrazad was
surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased saying her
permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, “How sweet and tasteful
is thy tale, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!” Quoth
she, “And where is this compared with that I would relate to you on the
coming night an the Sovran suffer me to survive?” Now when it was the
next night and that was
The Six Hundred and Seventy-eighth Night,
Dunyazad said to her, “Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other
than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching
of this our latter night!” She replied:——With love and good will! It
hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding,
lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and
worthy celebrating, that when Yusuf remained sitting as before, Al-Hayfa
asked him saying, “How art thou hight, O dearling of my heart and fruit
of my vitals?” Hereupon he told her his name and the name of his sire,
and related to her the whole of what had befallen him, first and last,
with the affair of the concubine and his faring forth from his own city
and how he had sighted her Palace and had swum the stream and shot the
shaft that carried the paper, after which he recited to her these
couplets:—
“I left my home for a fair young maid ✿ Whose love my night with its
light array’d;
Yet wot I not what her name may be ✿ Thus ignorance mating with union
forbade.
But when of her gifts I was certified ✿ Her gracious form the feat easy
made;
The King of Awe sent my steps to her ✿ And to union with beauty
vouchsafed me aid:
Indeed disgrace ever works me shame ✿ Tho’ long my longing to meet I’m
afraid.”
When Al-Hayfa heard his name her great love to him waxed greater. Then
she took the lute upon her lap and caressed it with her finger-tips when
it sighed and sobbed and groaned and moaned[219] and she fell to singing
these verses:—
“A thousand welcomes hail thy coming fain, ✿ O Yúsuf, dearling son of
Sahl’s strain:
We read thy letter and we understood ✿ Thy kingly birth from sand that
told it plain:[220]
I’m thine, by Allah, I the loveliest maid ✿ Of folk and thou to be my
husband deign:
Bruit of his fair soft cheek my love hath won ✿ And branch and root his
beauty grows amain:
He from the Northern Realms to us draws nigh ✿ For King Mihrján
bequeathing ban and bane;
And I behold him first my Castle seek ✿ As mate impelled by inspiration
fain.
The land upstirs he and the reign he rules ✿ From East to West, the King
my father slain;
But first he flies us for no fault of ours ✿ Upon us wasting senseless
words and vain:
E’en so Creation’s Lord hath deigned decree, ✿ Unique in
Heaven—glorified be He!”[221]
Now when Yusuf heard the words of Al-Hayfa he rejoiced with exceeding
joy and she was gladdened in like manner, after which he gifted her with
all that was upon him of gear and in similar guise she doffed what dress
was upon her and presented it to him.[222] Then she bade the slave girls
bring her an especial suit and they fetched her a second bundle and she
clothed Yusuf with what was therein of sumptuous clothes. After this the
Prince abode with Al-Hayfa as an inmate of her palace for a term of ten
days in all the happiness of life, eating and drinking and enjoying
conjugal intercourse.[223] Presently Almighty Allah (be He extolled and
exalted!) decreed that, when all tidings of Yusuf son of Sahl were lost,
his sire sent in search of him Yahyà,[224] his cousin and the son of his
maternal aunt, amongst a troop of twenty knights to track his trail and
be taught his tidings until Allah (be He glorified and magnified!)
guided him to the pages who had been left upon the river-bank. Here they
had tarried for ten days whilst the sunshine burnt them and hunger was
exterminating them; and when they were asked concerning their lord, they
gave notice that he had swum the stream and had gone up to yonder Castle
and had entered therein. “And we know not (they ended) whether he be
alive or dead.” So the lord Yahya said to them, “Is there amongst you
any will cross the current and bring us news of him?” but not one of
them would consent and they remained in silence and confusion. So he
asked them a second time and a third time yet none would rise up before
him and hearten him to attempt the dangers of the stream, whereupon he
drew forth his ink case of brass and a sheet of paper and he fell to
writing the following verses:—
“This day I have witnessed a singular case ✿ Of Yúsuf scion to Sahl’s
dear race:
Since he fared at undurn his sire was grieved ✿ And the Palace remained
but an empty place:
I liken the youth to full moon ’mid stars ✿ Disappearing and darkening
Earth’s bright face.
’Tis my only fear that his heart is harmed, ✿ Brent by Love-fires
lacking of mercy and grace:
By Allah, albeit man’s soul thou rule ✿ Among stranger folk thou art but
an ace!”
Presently he took a reed and grasping it thrust thereinto the twisted
and folded paper, after which he stopped the hole with wax; then,
lashing it to the surface of the shaft, he set it upon the bow-handle
and drew the string and shot the bolt in the direction of the Castle,
whither it flew and fell at the foot of the staircase beside the main
entrance. It so fortuned at that time a slave-girl came forth to fill
her pitcher with water and she found the arrow and picked it up and
carried it to her lady who was sitting in the speak-room at converse
with Yusuf. Hereupon the Prince hent the reed in hand and broke it and
drew forth the paper which he opened and read and comprehended. Hereupon
he wept with exceeding great weeping until he fell to the floor a-faint
and the Princess took the note from his grasp and perused it, and it was
hard upon her, so she bade them beat the slave-girl who brought the writ
with an hundred blows and they bastinadoed her till she lost her senses.
But when Yusuf recovered, he thought of his pages and his people and his
homestead and his family and he cried to Al-Hayfa, “Wallahi, I have
sinned with a great sin when I left my suite in the desert; and Satan
garred me forget them and the wine made me mindless of them and banished
from my thought my folk and my home. And now ’tis my desire to fare and
look upon my pages and to forgather with Yahya my cousin, the son of the
King’s sister and greet them and dismiss them to their homesteads, after
which I will return to thee forthright.” Quoth she, “By Allah, I may not
patient myself away from thee a single hour otherwise shall my spirit
depart my body, and I conjure thee by the Almighty that thou bid me
return to them a reply!” Quoth Prince Yusuf, “What news wilt thou give
them? An thou say that I never came to thee none will believe; for
indeed my pages saw me passing into thy Palace”——And Shahrazad was
surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased to say her
permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, “How sweet is thy story,
O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!” Quoth she, “And where
is this compared with that I would relate to you on the coming night an
the King suffer me to survive?” Now when it was the next night and that
was
The Six Hundred and Eightieth Night,
Dunyazad said to her, “Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other
than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching
of this our latter night!” She replied:——With love and good will! It
hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding,
lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and
worthy celebrating, that Prince Yusuf said to the Princess Al-Hayfa,
“Indeed my pages saw me passing into the Palace and have given him[225]
tidings to that effect.” And she responded to him with fairest response
and tenderness of terms and gem-like verse. Then she took her ink-case
and paper and a brazen pen and would have written but he forbade her,
saying by way of deprecation, “This be not the right rede! An thou
return a reply my slaves will take it and will bear it to my native
country and will inform the folk of all our adventure: ’tis better far
that I fare to them myself and greet them and going with them to my own
country satisfy my sire, after which I will return to thee in hottest
haste. And do not thou on this wise, for we fear lest our affair be made
public and this our case be reported to thy royal father, and it prove
hard to him by reason that all such talk in the case of the Kings is to
them mighty grievous. Moreover, when he shall be acquainted with the
truth he will either transport thee to his presence or he shall place
over this Palace guards who may forbid thee from me and forbid me from
thee, and this shall be a cause of our separation each from other.” But
Al-Hayfa shrieked aloud when she heard these words and wept and wailing
said, “O my lord, prithee take me with thee, me and my handmaids and all
that be in this my Palace.” Said he, “I will not delay from thee save
for the space of my wayfare an I live and Allah Almighty preserve me.”
Hereat she wept with loud weeping and groaned, and love-longing surged
up in her and she fell to repeating the following couplets:—
“Rain, O mine eyeballs, gouts of blood beshed ✿ From clouds of eyelids
e’en as grass turns red.
O mighty bane that beatest on my bones ✿ And oh heart-core, that melts
with fire long-fed!
My soul’s own dearling speedeth on his march ✿ Who can be patient when
his true love sped?
Deal kindly with my heart, have ruth, return ✿ Soon to my Castle nor be
long misled.”
And when Al-Hayfa had ended her verse, Yusuf wept with sore weeping and
cried, “By Allah, I had intended to return to thee after I had fared to
them and had settled the matter in hand. But suffer me dismiss those who
have come for me and seek reunion with thee, Inshallah—an it be the will
of Allah Almighty.” Then he farewelled her and doffed what he had of
dress, and when Al-Hayfa asked him, “Wherefore take off these clothes?”
he answered[226] “I will not inform anyone of our news, and indeed this
dress mostly befitteth womenkind.” Then he went forth from her with a
grief-bound heart and she wept and cried, “Help! Help!”[227] and all her
women shrieked and shed tears over parting with him. But as soon as
Yusuf passed out of the palace-door he took off the gown which was upon
him and turband’d it around his head together with his bow and quiver,
and he stinted not to stem the stream until he had reached the further
bank where he found and greeted the lord Yahya and his Mamelukes. They
all kissed his hand, and his cousin enquired of him, “What is the cause
of thy disappearing from these thy men for a space of ten days?” He
replied, “By Allah, O son of my aunt, when I went up to yonder Palace, I
found there a Youth of the sons of the kings, who welcomed and greeted
me as a guest and honoured me with the highmost honour and favoured me
with the fullest favour. But when I would have taken leave of him, the
air smote me[228] and fell upon my loins and laid me up so that I feared
to swim the stream and the unease that was upon me increased, and such
is the reason of my delaying away from you.” Then he took horse together
with Yahya and the pages, and they all sought their homes and cut across
the wilds and the wastes and the vales and the stony hills until they
drew near to their destination and their city rose clear before eyes of
them. As soon as they reached it the tidings were told to King Sahl[229]
who made ready for faring forth, he and the lords of his land, to meet
and greet his son and heir Yusuf; and meanwhile he bade decorate the
capital with the choicest decorations and ornaments and adornments. The
lieges gave one another joy of their Prince’s safe return, and clothed
their city in gala-guise, and the father having met the son alighted
from his steed and embraced him and kissed him between the eyes, and
personally conducting him up to the Palace did him due honour and
largessed him; and so great and lasting was their joy that the day of
arrival became high holiday. As soon as night fell, Prince Yusuf
repaired to his own Palace where he was met by his mother and his women
who were as full moons a-rising; and the spouses numbered three, besides
forty concubines. However he turned away from them and he lay alone that
night moaning even as moaneth the dove for the loss of her mate; and he
regarded not one of those wives and lemans, and he passed the dark hours
in brooding over the loss of his beloved, and in weeping and in the
reciting of poetry,——And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and
fell silent and ceased saying her permitted say. Then quoth her sister
Dunyazad, “How sweet and tasteful is thy tale, O sister mine, and how
enjoyable and delectable!” Quoth she, “And where is this compared with
that I would relate to you on the coming night an the Sovran suffer me
to survive?” Now when it was the next night and that was
The Six Hundred and Eighty-second Night,
Dunyazad said to her, “Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other
than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching
of this our latter night!” She replied:——With love and good will! It
hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding,
lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and
worthy celebrating, that Yusuf passed the night weeping and improvising
verse, but he let not fall a word of explanation fearing lest he divulge
his secret; and his spouses supposed that he was wroth with his sire and
knew not what there was in his vitals of exceeding desire to Al-Hayfa.
But when brake the day he was roused and gazing upon the rise of awaking
Dawn he pondered the happy mornings which had passed; so he wept and
complained and moaned like the culver and he fell to reciting these
couplets:——
“No joy but you in house and home I know ✿ Save bitter heart and tears
that ever flow;
Nor with mine eyes I view aught save yourselves ✿ Whenas in lowe of
love-desire I glow:
My heart enjoys but gust and greed for you, ✿ Mine eyelids own no joy
save wake and woe:
O blaming me for them, avaunt, by God ✿ Nor leave me fancy-free, worst
gift of foe!”