Malayan Literature: Comprising Romantic Tales, Epic Poetry and Royal Chronicles
General
Malayan Literature: Comprising Romantic Tales, Epic Poetry and Royal Chronicles
Malay literature -- Translations into English
No one among them dared approach and speak. All held silence. Then the
prince, addressing the oldest minister of all, said:
"O my minister, it is you to whom, following the dictates of my heart,
I can trust to accompany my wife and three children. For I have always
found you loyal and faithful to me. Beside, you are older than the
other ministers. And you have the fear of God the most high and worthy
of all praise as well as respect for your King."
The minister said: "O my lord, it is in all sincerity that your servant
puts above his head the commands of your Majesty. I shall do my whole
duty in conducting the princess and her children to the King Haroun-er-
Raschid."
So the King Chah Djouhou trusted his wife and his three children to
this perfidious minister, reposing upon the promise he had made. Forty
camels were laden with presents, forty nurses for the children, one
hundred ladies in the suite of the princess, a thousand cavaliers, well
armed and well equipped, formed the escort. The princess took leave of
her husband. He held her clasped in his arms, and, weeping, covered her
and his three children with kisses. He bade her to present his homage
to her father the Sultan Haroun-er-Raschid, his salutations to her
elder brother Minbah-Chahaz, and to place at the feet of their
majesties a thousand and a thousand apologies, and to make his excuses
to her brother Minbah-Chahaz. Then the prince said to the wicked
minister:
"O my minister, you must go now, and lead the camel of my wife, for I
have perfect confidence in you. Above all, guard her well."
But the King did not lean upon God the most high and worthy of all
praise, and that is why God punished him.
When the prince had finished speaking to the minister the latter said:
"O my lord, King of the world, your servant bears your command on his
head." So the cavalcade started on the march. Princess Djouher-Manikam
mounted her camel with her three children. A body-guard held the van.
She proceeded accompanied by the wretched minister and all the escort,
wending from day to day toward the city of Bagdad. They had reached one
of the halting-places when day was turning into night. The minister
then erected a tent so that the princess might repose in it. The people
put up their tents all about. Princess Djouher-Manikam dismounted from
her camel and entered the tent, with her three children. The tents of
the nurses and ladies-in-waiting surrounded the tent of the princess in
a circle. In the middle of the night a violent rain began to fall. Then
the wretched minister, stirred by Satan, was stirred in his heart. He
thought: "The King's wife is most beautiful; beautiful, indeed, as her
name, Djouher-Manikam. I must marry her."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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