mules, was absent awhile, after which he returned with a Cairene girl,
as she were a sheep’s tail fat and delicate, or an ingot of pure silvern
ore or a dinar on a porcelain plate or a gazelle in the wold forlore.
She had a face that put to shame the shining sun and eyes
Babylonian[421] and brows like bows bended and cheeks rose-painted and
teeth pearly-hued and lips sugared and glances languishing and breasts
ivory white and body slender and slight, full of folds and with dimples
dight and hips like pillows stuffed and thighs like columns of Syrian
stone, and between them what was something like a sachet of spices in
wrapper swathed. Quoth the poet of her in these couplets:—
Had she shown her shape to idolaters’ sight, ✿ They would gaze on her
face and their gods detest:
And if in the East to a monk she’d show’d, ✿ He’d quit Eastern posture
and bow to West.[422]
An she crached in the sea and the briniest sea ✿ Her lips would give it
the sweetest zest.
And quoth another in these couplets:—
Brighter than Moon at full with kohl’d eyes she came ✿ Like Doe, on
chasing whelps of Lioness intent:
Her night of murky locks lets fall a tent on her ✿ A tent of hair[423]
that lacks no pegs to hold the tent;
And roses lighting up her roseate cheeks are fed ✿ By hearts and livers
flowing fire for languishment:
An ’spied her all the Age’s Fair to her they’d rise ✿ Humbly,[424] and
cry “The meed belongs to precedent!”
And how well saith a third bard[425]:—
Three things for ever hinder her to visit us, for fear Of the intriguing
spy and eke the rancorous envier;
Her forehead’s lustre and the sound of all her ornaments And the sweet
scent her creases hold of ambergris and myrrh.
Grant with the border of her sleeve she hide her brow and doff Her
ornaments, how shall she do her scent away from her?
She was like the moon when at fullest on its fourteenth night, and was
clad in a garment of blue, with a veil of green, over brow flower-white
that all wits amazed and those of understanding amated——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty-seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the gardener
brought a girl whom we have described possessed of the utmost beauty and
loveliness and fine stature and symmetrical grace as it were she the
poet signified when he said[426]:—
She came apparelled in a vest of blue,
That mocked the skies and shamed their azure hue;
I thought thus clad she burst upon my sight,
Like summer moonshine on a wintry night.
And how goodly is the saying of another and how excellent!—
She came thick veiled, and cried I, “O display ✿ That face like full
moon bright with pure-white ray.”
Quoth she, “I fear disgrace,” quoth I, “Cut short ✿ This talk, no shift
of days thy thoughts affray.”
Whereat she raised her veil from fairest face ✿ And crystal spray on
gems began to stray:
And I forsooth was fain to kiss her cheek, ✿ Lest she complain of me on
Judgment-Day.
And at such tide before the Lord on High ✿ We first of lovers were
redress to pray:
So “Lord, prolong this reckoning and review” ✿ (Prayed I) “that longer I
may sight my may.”
Then said the young gardener to her, “Know thou, O lady of the fair,
brighter than any constellation which illumineth air we sought, in
bringing thee hither naught but that thou shouldst entertain with
converse this comely youth, my lord Nur al-Din, for he hath come to this
place only this day.” And the girl replied, “Would thou hadst told me,
that I might have brought what I have with me!” Rejoined the gardener,
“O my lady, I will go and fetch it to thee.” “As thou wilt,” said she:
and he, “Give me a token.” So she gave him a kerchief and he fared forth
in haste and returned after awhile, bearing a green satin bag with
slings of gold. The girl took the bag from him and opening it shook it,
whereupon there fell thereout two-and-thirty pieces of wood, which she
fitted one into other, male into female and female into male[427] till
they became a polished lute of Indian workmanship. Then she uncovered
her wrists and laying the lute in her lap, bent over it with the bending
of mother over babe, and swept the strings with her finger-tips;
whereupon it moaned and resounded and after its olden home yearned; and
it remembered the waters that gave it drink and the earth whence it
sprang and wherein it grew and it minded the carpenters who cut it and
the polishers who polished it and the merchants who made it their
merchandise and the ships that shipped it; and it cried and called aloud
and moaned and groaned; and it was as if she asked it of all these
things and it answered her with the tongue of the case, reciting these
couplets[428]:—
A tree whilere was I the Bulbul’s home ✿ To whom for love I bowed my
grass-green head:
They moaned on me, and I their moaning learnt ✿ And in that moan my
secret all men read:
The woodman felled me falling sans offence, ✿ And slender lute of me (as
view ye) made:
But, when the fingers smite my strings, they tell ✿ How man despite my
patience did me dead;
Hence boon-companions when they hear my moan ✿ Distracted wax as though
by wine misled:
And the Lord softens every heart to me, ✿ And I am hurried to the
highmost stead:
All who in charms excel fain clasp my waist; ✿ Gazelles of languid eyne
and Houri maid:
Allah ne’er part fond lover from his joy ✿ Nor live the loved one who
unkindly fled.
Then the girl was silent awhile, but presently taking the lute in lap,
again bent over it, as mother bendeth over child, and preluded in many
different modes; then, returning to the first, she sang these couplets:—
Would they[429] the lover seek without ado, ✿ He to his heavy grief had
bid adieu:
With him had vied the Nightingale[430] on bough ✿ As one far parted from
his lover’s view:
Rouse thee! awake! The Moon lights Union-night ✿ As tho’ such Union woke
the Morn anew.
This day the blamers take of us no heed ✿ And lute-strings bid us all
our joys ensue.
Seest not how four-fold things conjoin in one ✿ Rose, myrtle, scents and
blooms of golden hue[431].
Yea, here this day the four chief joys unite ✿ Drink and dinars, beloved
and lover true:
So win thy worldly joy, for joys go past ✿ And naught but storied tales
and legends last.
When Nur al-Din heard the girl sing these lines he looked on her with
eyes of love and could scarce contain himself for the violence of his
inclination to her; and on like wise was it with her, because she
glanced at the company who were present of the sons of the merchants and
she saw that Nur al-Din was amongst the rest as moon among stars; for
that he was sweet of speech and replete with amorous grace, perfect in
stature and symmetry, brightness and loveliness, pure of all defect,
than the breeze of morn softer, than Tasnim blander, as saith of him the
poet[432]:—
By his cheeks’ unfading damask and his smiling teeth I swear, By the
arrows that he feathers with the witchery of his air,
By his sides so soft and tender and his glances bright and keen, By the
whiteness of his forehead and the blackness of his hair,
By his arched imperious eyebrows, chasing slumber from my lids With
their yeas and noes that hold me ’twixt rejoicing and despair,
By the scorpions that he launches from his ringlet-clustered brows,
Seeking still to slay his lovers with his rigours unaware,
By the myrtle of his whiskers and the roses of his cheek, By his lips’
incarnate rubies and his teeth’s fine pearls and rare,
By the straight and tender sapling of his shape, which for its fruit
Doth the twin pomegranates, shining in his snowy bosom, wear,
By his heavy hips that tremble, both in motion and repose, And the
slender waist above them, all too slight their weight to bear,
By the silk of his apparel and his quick and sprightly wit, By all
attributes of beauty that are fallen to his share;
Lo, the musk exhales its fragrance from his breath, and eke the breeze
From his scent the perfume borrows, that it scatters everywhere.
Yea, the sun in all his splendour cannot with his brightness vie And the
crescent moon’s a fragment that he from his nails doth pare.
——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty-eighth Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Nur al-Din
was delighted with the girl’s verses and he swayed from side to side for
drunkenness and fell a-praising her and saying:—
A lutanist to us inclined ✿ And stole our wits bemused with wine:
And said to us her lute, “The Lord ✿ Bade us discourse by voice divine.”
When she heard him thus improvise the girl gazed at him with loving eyes
and redoubled in passion and desire for him increased upon her, and
indeed she marvelled at his beauty and loveliness, symmetry and grace,
so that she could not contain herself, but took the lute in lap again
and sang these couplets:—
He blames me for casting on him my sight ✿ And parts fro’ me bearing my
life and sprite:
He repels me but kens what my heart endures ✿ As though Allah himself
had inspired the wight:
I portrayed his portrait in palm of hand ✿ And cried to mine eyes, “Weep
your doleful plight.”
For neither shall eyes of me spy his like ✿ Nor my heart have patience
to bear its blight:
Wherefore, will I tear thee from breast, O Heart ✿ As one who regards
him with jealous spite.
And when say I, “O heart be consoled for pine,” ✿ ’Tis that heart to
none other shall e’er incline:
Nur al-Din wondered at the charms of her verse and the elegance of her
expression and the sweetness of her voice and the eloquence of her
speech and his wit fled for stress of love and longing, and ecstasy and
distraction, so that he could not refrain from her a single moment, but
bent to her and strained her to his bosom; and she in like manner bowed
her form over his and abandoned herself to his embrace and bussed him
between the eyes. Then he kissed her on the mouth and played with her at
kisses, after the manner of the billing of doves; and she met him with
like warmth and did with him as she was done by till the others were
distracted and rose to their feet; whereupon Nur al-Din was ashamed and
held his hand from her. Then she took her lute and, preluding thereon in
manifold modes, lastly returned to the first and sang these couplets:—
A Moon, when he bends him those eyes lay bare ✿ A brand that gars gazing
gazelle despair:
A King, rarest charms are the host of him ✿ And his lance-like shape men
with cane compare:
Were his softness of sides to his heart transferred ✿ His friend had not
suffered such cark and care:
Ah for hardest heart and for softest sides! ✿ Why not that to these
alter, make here go there?
O thou who accusest my love excuse: ✿ Take eternal and leave me the
transient share.[433]
When Nur al-Din heard the sweetness of her voice and the rareness of her
verse, he inclined to her for delight and could not contain himself for
excess of wonderment; so he recited these couplets:—
Methought she was the forenoon sun until she donned the veil ✿ But lit
she fire in vitals mine still flaring fierce and high,
How had it hurt her an she deigned return my poor salám ✿ With
finger-tips or e’en vouchsafed one little wink of eye?
The cavalier who spied her face was wholly stupefied ✿ By charms that
glorify the place and every charm outvie.
“Be this the Fair who makes thee pine and long for love liesse? ✿ Indeed
thou art excused!” “This is my fairest she;” (quoth I)
Who shot me with the shaft of looks nor deigns to rue my woes ✿ Of
strangerhood and broken heart and love I must aby:
I rose a-morn with vanquished heart, to longing love a prey ✿ And weep I
through the live long day and all the night I cry.
The girl marvelled at his eloquence and elegance and taking her lute,
smote thereon with the goodliest of performance, repeating all the
melodies, and sang these couplets:—
By the life o’ thy face, O thou life o’ my sprite! ✿ I’ll ne’er leave
thy love for despair or delight:
When art cruel thy vision stands hard by my side ✿ And the thought of
thee haunts me when far from sight:
O who saddenest my glance albe weeting that I ✿ No love but thy love
will for ever requite?
Thy cheeks are of Rose and thy lips-dews are wine; ✿ Say, wilt grudge
them to us in this charming site?
Hereat Nur al-Din was gladdened with extreme gladness and wondered with
the utmost wonder, so he answered her verse with these couplets:—
The sun yellowed not in the murk gloom li’en ✿ But lay pearl enveiled
’neath horizon-chine;
Nor showed its crest to the eyes of Morn ✿ But took refuge from parting
with Morning-shine.[434]
Take my tear-drops that trickle as chain on chain ✿ And they’ll tell my
case with the clearest sign.
An my tears be likened to Nile-flood, like ✿ Malak’s[435] flooded flat
be this love o’ mine.
Quoth she, “Bring thy riches!” Quoth I, “Come, take!” ✿ “And thy sleep?”
“Yes, take it from lids of eyne!”
When the girl heard Nur al-Din’s words and noted the beauty of his
eloquence her senses fled and her wit was dazed and love of him gat hold
upon her whole heart. So she pressed him to her bosom and fell to
kissing him like the billing of doves, whilst he returned her caresses
with successive kisses; but preeminence appertaineth to precedence.[436]
When she had made an end of kissing, she took the lute and recited these
couplets:—
Alas, alack and well-away for blamer’s calumny! ✿ Whether or not I make
my moan or plead or show no plea:
O spurner of my love I ne’er of thee so hard would deem ✿ That I of thee
should be despised, of thee my property.
I wont at lovers’ love to rail and for their passion chide, ✿ But now I
fain debase myself to all who rail at thee:
Yea, only yesterday I wont all amourists to blame ✿ But now I pardon
hearts that pine for passion’s ecstacy;
And of my stress of parting-stowre on me so heavy weighs ✿ At morning
prayer to Him I’ll cry, “In thy name, O Ali!”
And also these two couplets:—
His lovers said, “Unless he deign to give us all a drink ✿ Of wine, of
fine old wine his lips deal in their purity;
We to the Lord of Threefold Worlds will pray to grant our prayer” ✿ And
all exclaim with single cry “In thy name, O Ali!”
Nur al-Din, hearing these lines and their rhyme, marvelled at the
fluency of her tongue and thanked her, praising her grace and passing
seductiveness; and the damsel, delighted at his praise, arose without
stay or delay and doffing that was upon her of outer dress and trinkets
till she was free of all encumbrance sat down on his knees and kissed
him between the eyes and on his cheek-mole. Then she gave him all she
had put off.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
her permitted say.
Now when it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty-ninth Night,
She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the girl gave
to Nur al-Din all she had doffed, saying, “O beloved of my heart, in
very sooth the gift is after the measure of the giver.” So he accepted
this from her and gave it back to her and kissed her on the mouth and
cheeks and eyes. When this was ended and done, for naught is durable
save the Living, the Eternal, Provider of the peacock and the owl,[437]
Nur al-Din rose from the séance and stood upon his feet, because the
darkness was now fallen and the stars shone out; whereupon quoth the
damsel to him, “Whither away, O my lord?”; and quoth he, “To my father’s
home.” Then the sons of the merchants conjured him to night with them,
but he refused and mounting his she-mule, rode, without stopping, till
he reached his parent’s house, where his mother met him and said to him,
“O my son, what hath kept thee away till this hour? By Allah, thou hast
troubled myself and thy sire by thine absence from us, and our hearts
have been occupied with thee.” Then she came up to him, to kiss him on
his mouth, and smelling the fumes of the wine, said, “O my son, how is
it that, after prayer and worship thou hast become a wine-bibber and a
rebel against Him to whom belong creation and commandment?” But Nur
al-Din threw himself down on the bed and lay there. Presently in came
his sire and said, “What aileth Nur al-Din to lie thus?”; and his mother
answered, “’Twould seem his head acheth for the air of the garden.” So
Taj al-Din went up to his son, to ask him of his ailment, and salute
him, and smelt the reek of wine.[438] Now the merchant loved not
wine-drinkers; so he said to Nur al-Din, “Woe to thee, O my son! Is
folly come to such a pass with thee, that thou drinkest wine?” When Nur
al-Din heard his sire say this, he raised his hand, being yet in his
drunkenness, and dealt him a buffet, when by decree of the Decreer the
blow lit on his father’s right eye which rolled down on his cheek;
whereupon he fell a-swoon and lay therein awhile. They sprinkled
rose-water on him till he recovered, when he would have beaten his son;
but the mother withheld him, and he swore, by the oath of divorce from
his wife that, as soon as morning morrowed, he would assuredly cut off
his son’s right hand.[439] When she heard her husband’s words, her
breast was straitened and she feared for her son and ceased not to
soothe and appease his sire, till sleep overcame him. Then she waited
till moon-rise, when she went in to her son, whose drunkenness had now
departed from him, and said to him, “O Nur al-Din, what is this foul
deed thou diddest with thy sire?” He asked, “And what did I with him?”;
and answered she, “Thou dealtest him a buffet on the right eye and
struckest it out so that it rolled down his cheek; and he hath sworn by
the divorce-oath that, as soon as morning shall morrow he will without
fail cut off thy right hand.” Nur al-Din repented him of that he had
done, whenas repentance profited him naught, and his mother said to him,
“O my son, this penitence will not profit thee; nor will aught avail
thee but that thou arise forthwith and seek safety in flight: go forth
the house privily and take refuge with one of thy friends and there what
Allah shall do await, for he changeth case after case and state upon
state.” Then she opened a chest and taking out a purse of an hundred
dinars said, “O my son, take these dinars and provide thy wants
therewith, and when they are at an end, O my son, send and let me know
thereof, that I may send thee other than these, and at the same time
convey to me news of thyself privily: haply Allah will decree thee
relief and thou shalt return to thy home.” And she farewelled him and
wept passing sore, nought could be more. Thereupon Nur al-Din took the
purse of gold and was about to go forth, when he espied a great purse
containing a thousand dinars, which his mother had forgotten by the side
of the chest. So he took this also and binding the two purses about his
middle,[440] set out before dawn threading the streets in the direction
of Búlák, where he arrived when day broke and all creatures arose,
attesting the unity of Allah the Opener and went forth each of them upon
his several business, to win that which Allah had unto him allotted.
Reaching Bulak he walked on along the river-bank till he sighted a ship
with her gangway out and her four anchors made fast to the land. The
folk were going up into her and coming down from her, and Nur al-Din,
seeing some sailors there standing, asked them whither they were bound,
and they answered, “To Rosetta-city.” Quoth he, “Take me with you;” and
quoth they, “Well come, and welcome to, thee to thee, O goodly one!” So
he betook himself forthright to the market and buying what he needed of
vivers and bedding and covering, returned to the port and went on board
the ship, which was ready to sail and tarried with him but a little
while before she weighed anchor and fared on, without stopping, till she
reached Rosetta,[441] where Nur al-Din saw a small boat going to
Alexandria. So he embarked in it and traversing the sea-arm of Rosetta
fared on till he came to a bridge called Al-Jámí, where he landed and
entered Alexandria by the gate called the Gate of the Lote-tree. Allah
protected him, so that none of those who stood on guard at the gate saw
him, and he walked on till he entered the city.——And Shahrazad perceived
the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Eight Hundred and Seventieth Night,
She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Nur al-Din
entered Alexandria he found it a city goodly of pleasaunces, delightful
to its inhabitants and inviting to inhabit therein. Winter had fared
from it with his cold and Prime was come to it with his roses: its
flowers were kindly ripe and welled forth its rills. Indeed, it was a
city goodly of ordinance and disposition; its folk were of the best of
men, and when the gates thereof were shut, its folk were safe.[442] And
it was even as is said of it in these couplets:—
Quoth I to a comrade one day, ✿ A man of good speech and raré,
“Describe Alexandria.” ✿ Quoth he, “’Tis a march-town[2] fair.”
Quoth I, “Is there living therein?” ✿ And he, “An the wind blow there.”
Or as saith one of the poets:—
Alexandria’s a frontier;[443] ✿ Whose dews of lips are sweet and clear;
How fair the coming to it is, ✿ So one therein no raven speer!
Nur al-Din walked about the city and ceased not walking till he came to
the merchants’ bazar, whence he passed on to the mart of the
money-changers and so on in turn to the markets of the confectioners and
fruiterers and druggists, marvelling, as he went, at the city, for that
the nature of its qualities accorded with its name.[444] As he walked in
the druggists’ bazar, behold, an old man came down from his shop and
saluting him, took him by the hand and carried him to his home. And Nur
al-Din saw a fair by-street, swept and sprinkled, whereon the zephyr
blew and made pleasantness pervade it and the leaves of the trees
overshaded it. Therein stood three houses and at the upper end a
mansion, whose foundations were firm sunk in the water and its walls
towered to the confines of the sky. They had swept the space before it
and they had sprinkled it freshly; so it exhaled the fragrance of
flowers, borne on the zephyr which breathed upon the place; and the
scent met there who approached it on such wise as it were one of the
gardens of Paradise. And, as they had cleaned and cooled the by-street’s
head, so was the end of it with marble spread. The Shaykh carried Nur
al-Din into the house and setting somewhat of food before him ate with
his guest. When they had made an end of eating, the druggist said to
him, “When camest thou hither from Cairo?”; and Nur al-Din replied,
“This very night, O my father.” Quoth the old man, “What is thy name?”;
and quoth he, “Ali Nur al-Din.” Said the druggist, “O my son, O Nur
al-Din, be the triple divorce incumbent on me, an thou leave me so long
as thou abidest in this city; and I will set thee apart a place wherein
thou mayst dwell.” Nur al-Din asked, “O my lord the Shaykh, let me know
more of thee”; and the other answered, “Know, O my son, that some years
ago I went to Cairo with merchandise, which I sold there and bought
other, and I had occasion for a thousand dinars. So thy sire Taj al-Din
weighed them out[445] for me, all unknowing me, and would take no
written word of me, but had patience with me till I returned hither and
sent him the amount by one of my servants, together with a gift. I saw
thee, whilst thou wast little; and, if it please Allah the Most High, I
will repay thee somewhat of the kindness thy father did me.” When Nur
al-Din heard the old man’s story, he showed joy and pulling out with a
smile the purse of a thousand dinars, gave it to his host the Shaykh and
said to him, “Take charge of this deposit for me, against I buy me
somewhat of merchandise whereon to trade.” Then he abode some time in
Alexandria city taking his pleasure every day in its thoroughfares,
eating and drinking and indulging himself with mirth and merriment till
he had made an end of the hundred dinars he had kept by way of
spending-money; whereupon he repaired to the old druggist, to take of
him somewhat of the thousand dinars to spend, but found him not in his
shop and took a seat therein to await his return. He sat there gazing
right and left and amusing himself with watching the merchants and
passers-by, and as he was thus engaged behold, there came into the bazar
a Persian riding on a she-mule and carrying behind him a damsel; as she
were argent of alloy free or a fish Balti[446] in mimic sea or a
doe-gazelle on desert lea. Her face outshone the sun in shine and she
had witching eyne and breasts of ivory white, teeth of marguerite,
slender waist and sides dimpled deep and calves like tails of fat
sheep[447]; and indeed she was perfect in beauty and loveliness, elegant
stature and symmetrical grace, even as saith one, describing her[448]:—