strait on me!
An ye desire to hear me, listen, and ✿ Let all in this assembly silent
be.
Heed ye my words which are of meaning deep, ✿ Nor lies my speech; ‘tis
truest verity.
I’m slain[196] by longing and by ardent love; ✿ My slayer’s the pearl of
fair virginity.
She hath a jet black eye like Hindi blade, ✿ And bowèd eyebrows shoot
her archery;
My heart assures me our Imam is here, ✿ This age’s Caliph, old nobility:
Your second, Ja’afar hight, is his Wazir; ✿ A Sáhib,[197] Sahib-son of
high degree:
The third is called Masrur who wields the sword: ✿ Now, if in words of
mine some truth you see,
I have won every wish by this event ✿ Which fills my heart with joy and
gladdest gree.
When they heard these words Ja’afar swore to him an ambiguous oath that
they were not those he named, whereupon he laughed and said:—Know, O my
lords, that I am not the Commander of the Faithful and that I do but
style myself thus, to win my will of the sons of the city. My true name
is Mohammed Ali, son of Ali the Jeweller, and my father was one of the
notables of Baghdad, who left me great store of gold and silver and
pearls and coral and rubies and chrysolites and other jewels, besides
messuages and lands, Hammam-baths and brickeries, orchards and
flower-gardens. Now as I sat in my shop one day surrounded by my eunuchs
and dependents, behold, there came up a young lady, mounted on a
she-mule and attended by three damsels like moons. Riding up to my shop
she alighted and seated herself by my side and said, “Art thou Mohammed
the Jeweller?” Replied I, “Even so! I am he, thy Mameluke, thy chattel.”
She asked, “Hast thou a necklace of jewels fit for me?” and I answered,
“O my lady, I will show thee what I have; and lay all before thee and,
if any please thee, it will be of thy slave’s good luck; if they please
thee not, of his ill fortune.” Now I had by me an hundred necklaces and
showed them all to her; but none of them pleased her and she said, “I
want a better than those I have seen.” I had a small necklace which my
father had bought at an hundred thousand dinars and whose like was not
to be found with any of the great kings; so I said to her, “O my lady, I
have yet one necklace of fine stones fit for bezels, the like of which
none possesseth, great or small.” Said she, “Show it to me,” so I showed
it to her, and she said, “This is what I wanted and what I have wished
for all my life;” adding, “What is its price?” Quoth I, “It cost my
father an hundred thousand dinars;” and she said, “I will give thee five
thousand dinars to thy profit.” I answered, “O my lady, the necklace and
its owner are at thy service and I cannot gainsay thee.” But she
rejoined, “Needs must thou have the profit, and I am still most grateful
to thee.” Then she rose without stay or delay; and, mounting the mule in
haste, said to me, “O my lord, in Allah’s name, favour us with thy
company to receive the money; for this thy day with us is white as
milk.”[198] So I shut the shop and accompanied her, in all security,
till we came to a house, on which were manifest the signs of wealth and
rank; for its door was wrought with gold and silver and ultramarine, and
thereon were written these two couplets:—
Hola, thou mansion! woe ne’er enter thee; ✿ Nor be thine owner e’er
misused of Fate;
Excellent mansion to all guests art thou, ✿ When other mansions to the
guest are strait.
The young lady dismounted and entered the house, bidding me sit down on
the bench at the gate, till the money-changer should arrive. So I sat
awhile, when behold, a damsel came out to me and said, “O my lord, enter
the vestibule; for it is a dishonour that thou shouldst sit at the
gate.” Thereupon I arose and entered the vestibule and sat down on the
settle there; and, as I sat, lo! another damsel came out and said to me,
“O my lord, my mistress biddeth thee enter and sit down at the door of
the saloon, to receive thy money.” I entered and sat down, nor had I sat
a moment when behold, a curtain of silk which concealed a throne of gold
was drawn aside, and I saw seated thereon the lady who had made the
purchase; and round her neck she wore the necklace which looked pale and
wan by the side of a face as it were the rounded moon. At her sight, my
wit was troubled and my mind confounded, by reason of her exceeding
beauty and loveliness; but when she saw me she rose from her throne and
coming close up to me, said, “O light of mine eyes, is every handsome
one like thee pitiless to his mistress?” I answered, “O my lady, beauty,
all of it, is in thee and is but one of thy hidden charms.” And she
rejoined, “O Jeweller, know that I love thee and can hardly credit that
I have brought thee hither.” Then she bent towards me and I kissed her
and she kissed me and, as she caressed me, drew me towards her and to
her breast she pressed me.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Two Hundred and Ninety-first Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Jeweller
continued:—Then she bent towards me and kissed and caressed me; and, as
she caressed me, drew me towards her and to her breast she pressed me.
Now she knew by my condition that I had a mind to enjoy her; so she said
to me, “O my lord, wouldst thou foregather with me unlawfully? By Allah,
may he not live who would do the like of this sin and who takes pleasure
in talk unclean! I am a maid, a virgin whom no man hath approached, nor
am I unknown in the city. Knowest thou who I am?” Quoth I, “No, by
Allah, O my lady!”; and quoth she, “I am the Lady Dunyá, daughter of
Yáhyá bin Khálid the Barmecide and sister of Ja’afar, Wazir to the
Caliph.” Now as I heard this, I drew back from her, saying, “O my lady,
it is no fault of mine if I have been over-bold with thee; it was thou
didst encourage me to aspire to thy love, by giving me access to thee.”
She answered, “No harm shall befal thee, and needs must thou attain thy
desire in the only way pleasing to Allah. I am my own mistress and the
Kazi shall act as my guardian in consenting to the marriage contract;
for it is my will that I be to thee wife and thou be to me man.” Then
she sent for the Kazi and the witnesses and busied herself with making
ready; and, when they came, she said to them, “Mohammed Ali, bin Ali the
Jeweller, seeketh me in wedlock and hath given me the necklace to my
marriage-settlement; and I accept and consent.” So they wrote out the
contract of marriage between us; and ere I went in to her the servants
brought the wine-furniture and the cups passed round after the fairest
fashion and the goodliest ordering; and, when the wine mounted to our
heads, she ordered a damsel, a lute-player,[199] to sing. So she took
the lute and sang to a pleasing and stirring motive these couplets:—
He comes; and fawn and branch and moon delight these eyne ✿ Fie[200] on
his heart who sleeps o’ nights without repine;
Fair youth, for whom Heaven willed to quench in cheek one light, ✿ And
left another light on other cheek bright li’en:
I fain finesse my chiders when they mention him, ✿ As though the hearing
of his name I would decline;
And willing ear I lend when they of other speak; ✿ Yet would my soul
within outflow in floods of brine:
Beauty’s own prophet, he is all a miracle ✿ Of heavenly grace, and
greatest shows his face for sign:[201]
To prayer Bilál-like cries that Mole upon his cheek ✿ To ward from
pearly brow all eyes of ill design:[202]
The censors of their ignorance would my love dispel ✿ But after Faith I
can’t at once turn Infidel.
We were ravished by the sweet music she made striking the strings, and
the beauty of the verses she sang; and the other damsels went on to sing
and to recite one after another, till ten had so done; when the Lady
Dunya took the lute and playing a lively measure, chanted these
couplets:—
I swear by swayings of that form so fair, ✿ Aye from thy parting fiery
pangs I bear:
Pity a heart which burneth in thy love, ✿ O bright as fullest moon in
blackest air!
Vouchsafe thy boons to him who ne’er will cease ✿ In light of wine-cup
all thy charms declare,
Amid the roses which with varied hues ✿ Are to the myrtle-bush[203] a
mere despair.
When she had finished her verse; I took the lute from her hands and,
playing a quaint and no vulgar prelude sang the following verses:—
Laud to my Lord who gave thee all of loveliness; ✿ Myself amid thy
thralls I willingly confess:
O thou, whose eyes and glances captivate mankind, ✿ Pray that I ‘scape
those arrows shot with all thy stress!
Two hostile rivals water and enflaming fire ✿ Thy cheek hath married,
which for marvel I profess:
Thou art Sa’ír in heart of me and eke Na’ím;[204] ✿ Thou _agro-dolce_,
eke heart’s sweetest bitterness.
When she heard this my song she rejoiced with exceeding joy; then,
dismissing her slave-women, she brought me to a most goodly place, where
they had spread us a bed of various colours. She did off her clothes and
I had a lover’s privacy of her and found her a pearl unpierced and a
filly unridden. So I rejoiced in her and never in my born days spent I a
more delicious night.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Two Hundred and Ninety-second Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Mohammed bin Ali
the Jeweller continued:—So I went in unto the Lady Dunya, daughter of
Yahya bin Khalid the Barmecide, and I found her a pearl unthridden and a
filly unridden. So I rejoiced in her and repeated these couplets:—
O Night here stay! I want no morning light; ✿ My lover’s face to me is
lamp and light:[205]
As ring of ring-dove round his neck’s my arm; ✿ And made my palm his
mouth-veil; and, twas right.
This be the crown of bliss, and ne’er we’ll cease ✿ To clip, nor care to
be in other plight.
And I abode with her a whole month, forsaking shop and family and home,
till one day she said to me, “O light of my eyes, O my lord Mohammed, I
have determined to go to the Hammam to-day; so sit thou on this couch
and rise not from thy place, till I return to thee.” “I hear and I
obey,” answered I, and she made me swear to this; after which she took
her women and went off to the bath. But by Allah, O my brothers, she had
not reached the head of the street ere the door opened and in came an
old woman, who said to me, “O my lord Mohammed, the Lady Zubaydah
biddeth thee to her, for she hath heard of thy fine manners and
accomplishments and skill in singing.” I answered, “By Allah, I will not
rise from my place, till the Lady Dunya come back.” Rejoined the old
woman, “O my lord, do not anger the Lady Zubaydah with thee and vex her
so as to make her thy foe: nay, rise up and speak with her and return to
thy place.” So I rose at once and followed her into the presence of the
Lady Zubaydah and, when I entered her presence she said to me, “O light
of the eye, art thou the Lady Dunya’s beloved?” “I am thy Mameluke, thy
chattel,” replied I. Quoth she, “Sooth spake he who reported thee
possessed of beauty and grace and good breeding and every fine quality;
indeed, thou surpassest all praise and all report. But now sing to me,
that I may hear thee.” Quoth I, “Hearkening and obedience;” so she
brought me a lute, and I sang to it these couplets:—
The hapless lover’s heart is of his wooing weary grown; ✿ And hand of
sickness wasted him till naught but skin and bone:
Who should be amid the riders which the haltered camels urge, ✿ But that
same lover whose beloved doth in the litters wone:
To Allah’s charge I leave that moon-like Beauty in your tents ✿ Whom my
heart loves, albe my glance on her may ne’er be thrown.
Now she is fain; then she is fierce: how sweet her coyness shows; ✿ Yea,
sweet whatever doth or saith to lover lovèd one!
When I had finished my song she said to me, “Allah assain thy body and
thy voice! Verily, thou art perfect in beauty and good breeding and
singing. But now rise and return to thy place, ere the Lady Dunya come
back, lest she find thee not and be wroth with thee.” Then I kissed the
ground before her and the old woman forewent me till I reached the door
whence I came. So I entered and, going up to the couch, found that my
wife had come back from the bath and was lying asleep there. Seeing this
I sat down at her feet and rubbed them; whereupon she opened her eyes
and seeing me, drew up both her feet and gave me a kick that threw me
off the couch,[206] saying, “O traitor, thou hast been false to thine
oath and hast perjured thyself. Thou swarest to me that thou wouldst not
rise from thy place; yet didst thou break thy promise and go to the Lady
Zubaydah. By Allah, but that I fear public scandal, I would pull down
her palace over her head!” Then said she to her black slave, “O Sawáb,
arise and strike off this lying traitor’s head, for we have no further
need of him.” So the slave came up to me and, tearing a strip from his
skirt, bandaged with it my eyes[207] and would have struck off my
head;——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Two Hundred and Ninety-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Mohammed the
Jeweller continued:—So the slave came up to me and, tearing a strip from
his skirt, bandaged with it my eyes and would have struck off my head;
but all her women, great and small, rose and came up to her and said to
her, “O our lady, this is not the first who hath erred: indeed, he knew
not thy humour and hath done thee no offence deserving death.” Replied
she, “By Allah, I must needs set my mark on him.” And she bade them bash
me; so they beat me on my ribs and the marks ye saw are the scars of
that fustigation. Then she ordered them to cast me out, and they carried
me to a distance from the house and threw me down like a log. After a
time I rose and dragged myself little by little to my own place, where I
sent for a surgeon and showed him my hurts; and he comforted me and did
his best to cure me. As soon as I was recovered I went to the Hammam
and, as my pains and sickness had left me, I repaired to my shop and
took and sold all that was therein. With the proceeds, I bought me four
hundred white slaves, such as no King ever got together, and caused two
hundred of them to ride out with me every day. Then I made me yonder
barge whereon I spent five thousand gold pieces; and styled myself
Caliph and appointed each of my servants to the charge of some one of
the Caliph’s officers and clad him in official habit. Moreover, I made
proclamation, “Whoso goeth a-pleasuring on the Tigris by night, I will
strike off his head, without ruth or delay;” and on such wise have I
done this whole year past, during which time I have heard no news of the
lady neither happened upon any trace of her. Then wept he copiously and
repeated these couplets:—
By Allah! while the days endure ne’er shall forget her I, ✿ Nor draw to
any nigh save those who draw her to me nigh:
Like to the fullest moon her form and favour show to me; ✿ Laud to her
All-creating Lord, laud to the Lord on high!
She left me full of mourning, sleepless, sick with pine and pain ✿ And
ceaseth not my heart to yearn her mystery[208] to espy.
Now when Harun al-Rashid heard the young man’s story and knew the
passion and transport and love-lowe that afflicted him, he was moved to
compassion and wonder and said, “Glory be to Allah, who hath appointed
to every effect a cause!” Then they craved the young man’s permission to
depart; which being granted, they took leave of him, the Caliph
purposing to do him justice meet, and him with the utmost munificence
entreat; and they returned to the palace of the Caliphate, where they
changed clothes for others befitting their state and sat down, whilst
Masrur the Sworder of High Justice stood before them. After awhile,
quoth the Caliph to Ja’afar, “O Wazir, bring me the young man”——And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Two Hundred and Ninety-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that quoth the Caliph
to his Minister, “Bring me the young man with whom we were last night.”
“I hear and obey,” answered Ja’afar and, going to the youth, saluted
him, saying, “Obey the summons of the Commander of the Faithful, the
Caliph Harun al-Rashid.” So he returned with him to the palace, in great
anxiety by reason of the summons; and, going in to the King, kissed
ground before him; and offered up a prayer for the endurance of his
glory and prosperity, for the accomplishment of his desires, for the
continuance of his beneficence and for the cessation of evil and
punishment; ordering his speech as best he might and ending by saying,
“Peace be on thee, O Prince of True Believers and Protector of the folk
of the Faith!” Then he repeated these two couplets:—
Kiss thou his fingers which no fingers are; ✿ Keys of our daily bread
those fingers ken:
And praise his actions which no actions are; ✿ But precious necklaces
round necks of men.
So the Caliph smiled in his face and returned his salute, looking on him
with the eye of favour; then he bade him draw near and sit down before
him and said to him, “O Mohammed Ali, I wish thee to tell me what befel
thee last night, for it was strange and passing strange.” Quoth the
youth, “Pardon, O Commander of the Faithful, give me the kerchief of
immunity, that my dread may be appeased and my heart eased.” Replied the
Caliph, “I promise thee safety from fear and woes.” So the young man
told him his story from first to last, whereby the Caliph knew him to be
a lover and severed from his beloved and said to him, “Desirest thou
that I restore her to thee?” “This were of the bounty of the Commander
of the Faithful,” answered the youth and repeated these two couplets:—
Ne’er cease thy gate be Ka’abah to mankind; ✿ Long may its threshold
dust man’s brow beseem!
That o’er all countries it may be proclaimed, ✿ This is the Place and
thou art Ibrahim.[209]
Thereupon the Caliph turned to his Minister and said to him, “O Ja’afar,
bring me thy sister, the Lady Dunya, daughter of the Wazir Yahya bin
Khalid!” “I hear and I obey,” answered he and fetched her without let or
delay. Now when she stood before the Caliph he said to her, “Dost thou
know who this is?”; and she replied, “O Commander of the Faithful, how
should women have knowledge of men?”[210] So the Caliph smiled and said,
“O Dunya, this is thy beloved, Mohammed bin Ali the Jeweller. We are
acquainted with his case, for we have heard the whole story from
beginning to end, and have apprehended its inward and its outward; and
it is no more hidden from me, for all it was kept in secrecy.” Replied
she, “O Commander of the Faithful, this was written in the Book of
Destiny; I crave the forgiveness of Almighty Allah for the wrong I have
wrought, and pray thee to pardon me of thy favour.” At this the Caliph
laughed and, summoning the Kazi and witnesses, renewed the
marriage-contract between the Lady Dunya and her husband, Mohammed Ali
son of the Jeweller whereby there betided them, both her and him the
utmost felicity, and to their enviers mortification and misery.
Moreover, he made Mohammed Ali one of his boon-companions, and they
abode in joy and cheer and gladness, till there came to them the
Destroyer of delights and the Sunderer of societies. And men also relate
the pleasant tale of
-----
Footnote 186:
Arab. “Harrák,” whence probably our “Carack” and “Carrack” (large
ship), in dictionaries derived from Carrus Marinus.
Footnote 187:
Arab. “Gháshiyah” = lit. an étui, a cover; and often a saddle-cover
carried by the groom.
Footnote 188:
Arab. “Sharáb al-tuffáh” = melapio or cider.
Footnote 189:
Arab. “Mudawwarah,” which generally means a small round cushion, of
the Marocco-work well known in England. But one does not strike a
cushion for a signal; so we must revert to the original sense of the
word “something round,” as a circular plate of wood or metal, a gong,
a “bell” like that of the Eastern Christians.
Footnote 190:
Arab. “Túfán” (from the root tauf, going round) a storm, a circular
gale, a cyclone; the term universally applied in Al-Islam to the
“Deluge,” the “Flood” of Noah. The word is purely Arabic; with a
quaint likeness to the Gr. τυφῶν, in Pliny typhon, whirlwind, a giant
(Typhœus) whence “Typhon” applied to the great Egyptian god “Set.” The
Arab word extended to China and was given to the hurricanes which the
people call “Tae-foong,” great winds, a second whimsical resemblance.
But Sir John Davis (ii. 383) is hardly correct when he says, “the name
typhoon, in itself a corruption of the Chinese term, bears a singular
(though we must suppose an accidental) resemblance to the Greek
τυφῶν.”
Footnote 191:
Plurale majestatis acting superlative; not as Lane supposes (ii. 224)
“a number of full moons, not only one.” Eastern tongues abound in
instances beginning with Genesis (i. 1), “Gods (he) created the
heaven,” etc. It is still preserved in Badawi language and a wildling
greatly to the astonishment of the citizens will address his friend
“Yá Rijál” = O men!
Footnote 192:
Arab. “Hásid” = an envier: in the fourth couplet “Azúl” (Azzál, etc.)
= a chider, blamer; elsewhere “Lawwám” = accuser, censor, slanderer;
“Wáshí” = whisperer, informer; “Rakib” = spying, envious rival;
“Ghábit” = one emulous without envy; and “Shámit” = a “blue” (fierce)
enemy who rejoices over another’s calamities. Arabic literature
abounds in allusions to this unpleasant category of “damned
ill-natured friends;” and Spanish and Portuguese letters, including
Brazilian, have thoroughly caught the trick. In the Eastern mind the
“blamer” would be aided by the “evil eye.”
Footnote 193:
Another plural for a singular, “O my beloved!”
Footnote 194:
Arab. “Khayr” = good news, a euphemistic reply even if the tidings be
of the worst.
Footnote 195:
Abbás (from ‘Abs, being austere; and meaning the “grim-faced”) son of
Abd al-Muttalib; uncle to Mohammed and eponym of the Abbaside
Khalifahs. A.D. 749 = 1258.
Footnote 196:
Katíl = the Irish “kilt.”
Footnote 197:
This has been explained as a wazirial title of the time.
Footnote 198:
The phrase is intelligible in all tongues: in Arabic it is opposed to
“dark as night,” “black as mud” and a host of unsavoury antitheses.
Footnote 199:
Arab. “Awwádah,” the popular word; not Udíyyah as in Night cclvi. “Ud”
liter. = wood and “Al-Ud” = the wood is, I have noted, the origin of
our “lute.” The Span. “laud” is larger and deeper than the guitar, and
its seven strings are played upon with a plectrum of buffalo-horn.
Footnote 200:
Arab. “Tabban lahu!” = loss (or ruin) to him. So “bu’dan lahu” = away
with him, abeat in malam rem; and “Suhkan lahu” = Allah and mercy be
far from him, no hope for him!
Footnote 201:
Arab. “Áyah” = Koranic verset, sign, miracle.
Footnote 202:
The mole on cheek calls to prayers for his preservation; and it is
black as Bilal the Abyssinian. Fajran may here mean either “A-morning”
or “departing from grace.”
Footnote 203:
_i.e._ the young beard (myrtle) can never hope to excel the beauties
of his cheeks (roses).
Footnote 204:
_i.e._ Hell and Heaven.
Footnote 205:
The first couplet is not in the Mac. Edit. (ii. 171) which gives only
a single couplet; but it is found in the Bres. Edit. which entitles
this tale “Story of the lying (or false = kázib) Khalífah.” Lane (ii.
392) of course does not translate it.
Footnote 206:
In the East cloth of frieze that mates with cloth of gold must expect
this treatment. Fath Ali Shah’s daughters always made their husbands
enter the nuptial bed by the foot end.
Footnote 207:
This is always done and for two reasons; the first humanity, that the
blow may fall unawares; and, secondly, to prevent the sufferer
wincing, which would throw out the headsman.
Footnote 208:
Arab. “Ma’áni-há,” lit. her meanings, _i.e._ her inner woman opposed
to the formal seen by every one.
Footnote 209:
Described in my Pilgrimage (iii. 168, 174 and 175): it is the stone
upon which the Patriarch stood when he built the Ka’abah and is said
to show the impress of the feet; but unfortunately I could not afford
five dollars entrance-fee. Caliph Omar placed the station where it now
is; before his time it adjoined the Ka’abah. The meaning of the text
is, Be thy court a place of pious visitation, etc. At the “Station of
Abraham” prayer is especially blessed and expects to be granted. “This
is the place where Abraham stood; and whoever entereth therein shall
be safe” (Koran ii. 119). For the other fifteen places where petitions
are favourably heard by Heaven see ibid. iii. 211-12.
Footnote 210: