crossing and cutting over wold and wild and riant dale and rugged hill,
till they came to the shore of the Sea of Treasures here they pitched
their tents and built her a great ship, wherein they went down with her
and her suite and carried them over to the mountain. The Minister had
ordered them, on reaching the journey’s end, to set her in the castle
and to make their way back to the shore, where they were to break up the
vessel. So they did his bidding and returned home, weeping over what had
befallen. Such was their case; but as regards Uns al-Wujud, he arose
from sleep and prayed the dawn-prayer, after which he took horse and
rode forth to attend upon the Sultan. On his way, he passed by the
Wazir’s house, thinking perchance to see some of his followers as of
wont; but he saw no one and, looking upon the door, he read written
thereon the verses aforesaid. At this sight, his senses failed him; fire
was kindled in his vitals and he returned to his lodging, where he
passed the day in trouble and transports of grief, without finding ease
or patience, till night darkened upon him, when his yearning and
love-longing redoubled. Thereupon, by way of concealment, he disguised
himself in the ragged garb of a Fakir,[42] and set out wandering at
random through the glooms of night, distracted and knowing not whither
he went. So he wandered on all that night and next day, till the heat of
the sun waxed fierce and the mountains flamed like fire and thirst was
grievous upon him. Presently, he espied a tree, by whose side was a thin
thread of running water; so he made towards it and sitting down in the
shade, on the bank of the rivulet, essayed to drink, but found that the
water had no taste in his mouth;[43] and, indeed his colour had changed
and his face had yellowed, and his feet were swollen with travel and
travail. So he shed copious tears and repeated these couplets:—
The lover is drunken with love of friend; ✿ On a longing that groweth
his joys depend:
Love-distracted, ardent, bewildered, lost ✿ From home, nor may food
aught of pleasure lend:
How can life be delightsome to one in love, ✿ And from lover parted,
‘twere strange, unkenned!
I melt with the fire of my pine for them, ✿ And the tears down my cheek
in a stream descend.
Shall I see them, say me, or one that comes ✿ From the camp, who th’
afflicted heart shall tend?
And after thus reciting he wept till he wetted the hard dry ground; but
anon without loss of time he rose and fared on again over waste and
wold, till there came out upon him a lion, with a neck buried in tangled
mane, a head the bigness of a dome, a mouth wider than the door thereof
and teeth like elephants’ tusks. Now when Uns al-Wujud saw him, he gave
himself up for lost and, turning[44] towards the Temple of Meccah,
pronounced the professions of the faith and prepared for death. He had
read in books that whoso will flatter the lion, beguileth him,[45] for
that he is readily duped by smooth speech and gentled by being
glorified; so he began and said, “O Lion of the forest! O Lord of the
waste! O terrible Leo! O father of fighters! O Sultan of wild beasts!
Behold, I am a lover in longing, whom passion and severance have been
wronging; since I parted from my dear, I have lost my reasoning gear;
wherefore, to my speech do thou give ear and have ruth on my passion and
hope and fear.” When the lion heard this, he drew back from him and
sitting down on his hind-quarters, raised his head to him and began to
frisk tail and paws; which when Uns al-Wujud saw, he recited these
couplets:—
Lion of the wold wilt thou murther me, ✿ Ere I meet her who doomed me to
slavery?
I am not game and I bear no fat; ✿ For the loss of my love makes me
sickness dree;
And estrangement from her hath so worn me down ✿ I am like a shape in a
shroud we see.
O thou sire of spoils,[46] O thou lion of war, ✿ Give not my pains to
the blamer’s gree.
I burn with love, I am drowned in tears ✿ For a parting from lover, sore
misery!
And my thoughts of her in the murk of night ✿ For love hath made my
being unbe.
As he had finished his lines the lion rose——And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Three Hundred and Seventy-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that as Uns al-Wujud
ended his lines, the lion arose and stalked slowly up to him, with eyes
tear-railing and licked him with his tongue, then walked on before him,
signing to him as though saying, “Follow me.” So he followed him, and
the beast ceased not leading him on for a while till he brought him up a
mountain, and guided him to the farther side, where he came upon the
track of a caravan over the desert, and knew it to be that of
Rose-in-Hood and her company. Then he took the trail and, when the lion
saw that he knew the track for that of the party which escorted her, he
turned back and went his way; whilst Uns al-Wujud walked along the
foot-marks day and night, till they brought him to a dashing sea,
swollen with clashing surge. The trail led down to the sandy shore and
there broke off; whereby he knew that they had taken ship and had
continued their journey by water. So he lost hope of finding his lover
and with hot tears he repeated these couplets:—
Far is the fane and patience faileth me; ✿ How can I seek them[47] o’er
the abysmal sea;
Or how be patient, when my vitals burn ✿ For love of them, and sleep
waxed insomny?
Since the sad day they left the home and fled, ✿ My heart’s consumèd by
love’s ardency:
Sayhun, Jayhun,[48] Euphrates-like my tears, ✿ Make flood no deluged
rain its like can see:
Mine eyelids chafed with running tears remain, ✿ My heart from fiery
sparks is never free;
The hosts of love and longing pressèd me ✿ And made the hosts of
patience break and flee.
I’ve risked my life too freely for their love; ✿ And risk of life the
least of ills shall be.
Allah ne’er punish eye that saw those charms ✿ Enshrined, and passing
full moon’s brillancy!
I found me felled by fair wide-opened eyes, ✿ Which pierced my heart
with stringless archery:
And soft, lithe, swaying shape enraptured me ✿ As sway the branches of
the willow-tree:
Wi’ them I covet union that I win, ✿ O’er love-pains cark and care, a
mastery.
For love of them aye, morn and eve I pine, ✿ And doubt all came to me
from evil eyne.
And when his lines were ended he wept, till he swooned away, and abode
in his swoon a long while; but as soon as he came to himself, he looked
right and left and seeing no one in the desert, he became fearful of the
wild beasts; so he clomb to the top of a high mountain, where he heard
the voice of a son of Adam speaking within a cave. He listened and lo!
they were the accents of a devotee, who had forsworn the world and given
himself up to pious works and worship. He knocked thrice at the
cavern-door, but the hermit made him no answer, neither came forth to
him; wherefore he groaned aloud and recited these couplets:—
What pathway find I my desire t’obtain, ✿ How ‘scape from care and cark
and pain and bane?
All terrors join to make me old and hoar ✿ Of head and heart, ere youth
from me is ta’en:
Nor find I any aid my passion, nor ✿ A friend to lighten load of bane
and pain.
How great and many troubles I’ve endured! ✿ Fortune hath turned her back
I see unfain.
Ah mercy, mercy on the lover’s heart, ✿ Doomed cup of parting and
desertion drain!
A fire is in his heart, his vitals waste, ✿ And severance made his
reason vainest vain.
How dread the day I came to her abode ✿ And saw the writ they wrote on
doorway lain!
I wept, till gave I earth to drink my grief; ✿ But still to near and
far[49] I did but feign:
Then strayed I till in waste a lion sprang ✿ On me, and but for
flattering words had slain:
I soothed him: so he spared me and lent me aid, ✿ He too might haply of
love’s taste complain.
O devotee, that idlest in thy cave, ✿ Meseems eke thou hast learned
Love’s might and main;
But if, at end of woes, with them I league, ✿ Straight I’ll forget all
suffering and fatigue.
Hardly had he made an end of these verses when, behold! the door of the
cavern opened and he heard one say, “Alas, the pity of it!”[50] So he
entered and saluted the devotee, who returned his salam and asked him,
“What is thy name?” Answered the young man, “Uns al-Wujud.” “And what
caused thee to come hither?” quoth the hermit. So he told him his story
in its entirety, omitting naught of his misfortunes; whereat he wept and
said,
“O Uns al-Wujud, these twenty years have I passed in this place, but
never beheld I any man here, until yesterday, when I heard a noise of
weeping and lamentation and, looking forth in the direction of the
sound, saw many people and tents pitched on the sea-shore; and the party
at once proceeded to build a ship, in which certain of them embarked and
sailed over the waters. Then some of the crew returned with the ship and
breaking it up, went their way; and I suspect that those who embarked in
the ship and returned not, are they whom thou seekest. In that case, O
Uns al-Wujud, thy grief must needs be great and sore and thou art
excusable, though never yet was lover but suffered love-longing.” Then
he recited these couplets:—
Uns al-Wujud, dost deem me fancy-free, ✿ When pine and longing slay and
quicken me?
I have known love and yearning from the years ✿ Since mother-milk I
drank, nor e’er was free.
Long struggled I with Love, till learnt his might; ✿ Ask thou of him,
he’ll tell with willing gree.
Love-sick and pining drank I passion-cup, ✿ And well-nigh perished in
mine agony.
Strong was I, but my strength to weakness turned, ✿ And eye-sword brake
through Patience armoury:
Hope not to win love-joys, without annoy; ✿ Contrary ever links with
contrary.
But fear not change from lover true; be true ✿ Unto thy wish, some day
thine own ‘twill be.
Love hath forbidden to his votaries ✿ Relinquishment as deadliest
heresy.
The eremite, having ended his verse, rose and, coming up to Uns
al-Wujud, embraced him,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Three Hundred and Seventy-fifth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the eremite,
having ended his verse, rose and coming up to Uns al-Wujud embraced him,
and they wept together, till the hills rang with their cries and they
fell down fainting. When they revived, they swore brotherhood[51] in
Allah Almighty; after which said Uns al-Wujud, “This very night will I
pray to God and seek of Him direction[52] anent what thou shouldst do to
attain thy desire.” Thus it was with them; but as regards Rose-in-Hood,
when they brought her to the mountain and set her in the castle and she
beheld its ordering, she wept and exclaimed, “By Allah, thou art a
goodly place, save that thou lackest in thee the presence of the
beloved!”[53] Then seeing birds in the island, she bade her people set
snares for them and put all they caught in cages within the castle; and
they did so. But she sat at a lattice and bethought her of what had
passed, and desire and passion and distraction redoubled upon her, till
she burst into tears and repeated these couplets:—
O to whom now, of my desire complaining sore, shall I ✿ Bewail my
parting from my fere compellèd thus to fly?
Flames rage within what underlies my ribs, yet hide them I ✿ In deepest
secret dreading aye the jealous hostile spy:
I am grown as lean, attenuate as any pick of tooth,[54] ✿ By sore
estrangement, absence, ardour, ceaseless sob and sigh.
Where is the eye of my beloved to see how I’m become ✿ Like tree
stripped bare of leafage left to linger and to die.
They tyrannisèd over me whom they confined in place ✿ Whereto the lover
of my heart may never draw him nigh:
I beg the Sun for me to give greetings a thousandfold, ✿ At time of
rising and again when setting from the sky,
To the belovèd one who shames a full moon’s loveliness, ✿ When shows
that slender form that doth the willow-branch outvie.
If Rose herself would even with his cheek, I say of her ✿ “Thou art not
like it if to me my portion thou deny:”[55]
His honey-dew of lips is like the grateful water draught ✿ Would cool me
when a fire in heart upflameth fierce and high:
How shall I give him up who is my heart and soul of me, ✿ My malady my
wasting cause, my love, sole leach of me?
Then, as the glooms of night closed around her, her yearning increased
and she called to mind the past and recited also these couplets:—
‘Tis dark: my transport and unease now gather might and main, ✿ And
love-desire provoketh me to wake my wonted pain:
The pang of parting takes for ever place within my breast, ✿ And pining
makes me desolate in destitution lain.
Ecstasy sore maltreats my soul and yearning burns my sprite, ✿ And tears
betray love’s secresy which I would lief contain:
I weet no way, I know no case that can make light my load, ✿ Or heal my
wasting body or cast out from me this bane.
A hell of fire is in my heart upflames with lambent tongue ✿ And Lazá’s
furnace-fires within my liver place have ta’en.
O thou, exaggerating blame for what befel, enough ✿ I bear with patience
whatsoe’er hath writ for me the Pen!
I swear, by Allah, ne’er to find aught comfort for their loss; ✿ ‘Tis
oath of passion’s children and their oaths are ne’er in vain.
O Night! Salams of me to friends and let to them be known ✿ Of thee true
knowledge how I wake and waking ever wone.
Meanwhile, the hermit said to Uns al-Wujud, “Go down to the palm-grove
in the valley and fetch some fibre.”[56] So he went and returned with
the palm-fibre, which the hermit took and, twisting into ropes, made
therewith a net,[57] such as is used for carrying straw; after which he
said, “O Uns al-Wujud, in the heart of the valley groweth a gourd, which
springeth up and drieth upon its roots. Go down there and fill this sack
therewith; then tie it together and, casting it into the water, embark
thereon and make for the midst of the sea, so haply thou shalt win thy
wish; for whoso never ventureth shall not have what he seeketh.” “I hear
and obey,” answered Uns al-Wujud. Then he bade the hermit farewell after
the holy man had prayed for him; and, betaking himself to the sole of
the valley, did as his adviser had counselled him; made the sack,
launched it upon the water, and pushed from shore. Then there arose a
wind, which drave him out to sea, till he was lost to the eremite’s
view; and he ceased not to float over the abysses of the ocean, one
billow tossing him up and another bearing him down (and he beholding the
while the dangers and marvels of the deep), for the space of three days.
At the end of that time Fate cast him upon the Mount of the Bereft
Mother, where he landed, giddy and tottering like a chick unfledged, and
at the last of his strength for hunger and thirst; but, finding there
streams flowing and birds on the branches cooing and fruit-laden trees
in clusters and singly growing, he ate of the fruits and drank of the
rills. Then he walked on till he saw some white thing afar off, and
making for it, found that it was a strongly fortified castle. So he went
up to the gate and seeing it locked, sat down by it; and there he sat
for three days when behold, the gate opened and an eunuch came out, who
finding Uns al-Wujud there seated, said to him, “Whence camest thou and
who brought thee hither?” Quoth he, “From Ispahan and I was voyaging
with merchandise when my ship was wrecked and the waves cast me upon the
farther side of this island.” Whereupon the eunuch wept and embraced
him, saying, “Allah preserve thee, O thou friendly face! Ispahan is mine
own country and I have there a cousin, the daughter of my father’s
brother, whom I loved from my childhood and cherished with fond
affection; but a people stronger than we fell upon us in foray and
taking me among other booty, cut off my yard[58] and sold me for a
castrato, whilst I was yet a lad; and this is how I came to be in such
case.”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Three Hundred and Seventy-sixth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the eunuch who
came forth from the castle, where Rose-in-Hood was confined, told Uns
al-Wujud all his tale and said:—“The raiders who captured me cut off my
yard and sold me for a castrato; and this is how I came to be in such
case.”[59] And after saluting him and wishing him long life, the eunuch
carried him into the courtyard of the castle, where he saw a great tank
of water, surrounded by trees, on whose branches hung cages of silver,
with doors of gold, and therein birds were warbling and singing the
praises of the Requiting King. And when he came to the first cage he
looked in and lo! a turtle dove, on seeing him, raised her voice and
cried out, saying, “O Thou Bounty-fraught!” Whereat he fell down
fainting and after coming to himself, he sighed heavily and recited
these couplets:—
O turtle dove, like me art thou distraught? ✿ Then pray the Lord and
sing “O Bounty-fraught!”
Would I knew an thy moan were sign of joy, ✿ Or cry of love-desire in
heart inwrought,—
An moan thou pining for a lover gone ✿ Who left thee woe begone to pine
in thought,—
Or if like me hast lost thy fondest friend, ✿ And severance long desire
to memory brought?
O Allah, guard a faithful lover’s lot ✿ I will not leave her though my
bones go rot!
Then, after ending his verses, he fainted again; and, presently reviving
he went on to the second cage, wherein he found a ringdove. When it saw
him, it sang out, “O Eternal, I thank thee!” and he groaned and recited
these couplets:—
I heard a ringdove chanting plaintively, ✿ “I thank Thee, O Eternal for
this misery!”
Haply, perchance, may Allah, of His grace, ✿ Send me by this long round
my love to see.
Full oft[60] she comes with honeyed lips dark red, ✿ And heaps up lowe
upon love’s ardency.
Quoth I (while longing fires flame high and fierce ✿ In heart, and
wasting life’s vitality,
And tears like gouts of blood go railing down ✿ In torrents over cheeks
now pale of blee),
“None e’er trod earth that was not born to woe, ✿ But I will patient
dree mine agony,
So help me Allah! till that happy day ✿ When with my mistress I unite
shall be:
Then will I spend my good on lover-wights, ✿ Who’re of my tribe and of
the faith of me;
And loose the very birds from jail set free, ✿ And change my grief for
gladdest gree and glee!”
Then he went on to the third cage, wherein he found a mocking-bird[61]
which, when it saw him, set up a song, and he recited the following
couplets:—
Pleaseth me yon Hazár of mocking strain ✿ Like voice of lover pained by
love in vain.
Woe’s me for lovers! Ah how many men ✿ By nights and pine and passion
low are lain!
As though by stress of love they had been made ✿ Morn-less and
sleep-less by their pain and bane.
When I went daft for him who conquered me ✿ And pined for him who proved
of proudest strain,
My tears in streams down trickled and I cried ✿ “These long-linkt tears
bind like an adamant-chain:”
Grew concupiscence, severance long, and I ✿ Lost Patience’ hoards and
grief waxed sovereign:
If Justice bide in world and me unite ✿ With him I love and Allah veil
us deign,
I’ll strip my clothes that he my form shall sight ✿ With parting,
distance, grief, how poor of plight!
Then he went to the fourth cage, where he found a Bulbul[62] which, at
sight of him, began to sway to and fro and sing its plaintive descant;
and when he heard its complaint, he burst into tears and repeated these
couplets:—
The Bulbul’s note, whenas dawn is nigh, ✿ Tells the lover from strains
of strings to fly:
Complaineth for passion Uns al-Wujud, ✿ For pine that would being to him
deny.
How many a strain do we hear, whose sound ✿ Softens stones and the rock
can mollify:
And the breeze of morning that sweetly speaks ✿ Of meadows in flowerèd
greenery.
And scents and sounds in the morning-tide ✿ Of birds and zephyrs in
fragrance vie;
But I think of one, of an absent friend, ✿ And tears rail like rain from
a showery sky;
And the flamy tongues in my breast uprise ✿ As sparks from gleed that in
dark air fly.
Allah deign vouchsafe to a lover distraught ✿ Someday the face of his
dear to descry!
For lovers, indeed, no excuse is clear, ✿ Save excuse of sight and
excuse of eye.
Then he walked on a little and came to a goodly cage, than which was no
goodlier there, and in it a culver of the forest, that is to say, a
wood-pigeon,[63] the bird renowned among birds as the minstrel of
love-longing, with a collar of jewels about its neck marvellous fine and
fair. He considered it awhile and, seeing it absently brooding in its
cage, he shed tears and repeated these couplets:—
O culver of copse,[64] with salams I greet; ✿ O brother of lovers who
woe must weet!
I love a gazelle who is slender-slim, ✿ Whose glances for keenness the
scymitar beat:
For her love are my heart and my vitals a-fire, ✿ And my frame consumes
in love’s fever-heat.
The sweet taste of food is unlawful for me, ✿ And forbidden is slumber,
unlawfullest sweet.
Endurance and solace have travelled from me, ✿ And love homes in my
heart and grief takes firm seat:
How shall life deal joy when they flee my sight ✿ Who are joy and
gladness and life and sprite?
As soon as Uns al-Wujud had ended his verse——And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Three Hundred and Seventy-seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that as soon as Uns
al-Wujud had ended his verse, the wood-culver awoke from its brooding
and cooed a reply to his lines and shrilled and trilled with its
thrilling notes till it all but spake with human speech;[65] and the
tongue of the case talked for it and recited these couplets:—
O lover, thou bringest to thought a tide ✿ When the strength of my youth
first faded and died;
And a friend of whose form I was ‘namourèd, ✿ Seductive and dight with
beauty’s pride;
Whose voice, as he sat on the sandhill-tree, ✿ From the Nay’s[66] sweet
sound turned my heart aside;
A fowler snared him in net, the while ✿ “O that man would leave me at
large!” he cried:
I had hoped he might somewhat of mercy show ✿ When a hapless lover he so
espied;
But Allah smite him who tore me away, ✿ In his hardness of heart, from
my lover’s side;
But aye my desire for him groweth more, ✿ And my heart with the fires of
disjunction is fried:
Allah guard a true lover, who strives with love, ✿ And hath borne the
torments I still abide!
And, seeing me bound in this cage, with mind ✿ Of ruth, release me my
love to find.
Then Uns al-Wujud turned to his companion, the Ispahahi, and said, “What
palace is this? Who built it and who abideth in it?” Quoth the eunuch,
“The Wazir of a certain King built it to guard his daughter, fearing for
her the accidents of Time and the incidents of Fortune, and lodged her
herein, her and her attendants; nor do we open it save once in every
year, when their provision cometh to them.” And Uns al-Wujud said to
himself, “I have gained my end, though I may have long to wait.” Such
was his case; but as regards Rose-in-Hood, of a truth she took no
pleasure in eating or drinking, sitting or sleeping; but her desire and
passion and distraction redoubled on her, and she went wandering about
the castle-corners, but could find no issue; wherefore she shed tears
and recited these couplets:—
They have cruelly ta’en me from him, my beloved, ✿ And made me taste
anguish in prison ta’en:
They have fired my heart with the flames of love, ✿ Barred all sight of
him whom to see I’m fain:
In a lofty palace they prisoned me ✿ On a mountain placed in the middle
main.
If they’d have me forget him, right vain’s their wish, ✿ For my love is
grown of a stronger strain.
How _can_ I forget him whose face was cause ✿ Of all I suffer, of all I
‘plain?
The whole of my days in sorrow’s spent, ✿ And in thought of him through
the night I’m lain.
Remembrance of him cheers my solitude, ✿ While I lorn of his presence
and lone remain.
Would I knew if, after this all, my fate ✿ To oblige the desire of my
heart will deign.