Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 6 (of 6)
General
Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 6 (of 6)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
On hearing this recitation the young lady said to Ja'afar, Miserable fellow, what
is this discourse which does not belong to the like of thee? Get up and begone
with the malediction of Allah and the protection of Satan. Ja'afar arose, seized
with a mighty rage in addition to his love; and in this love for her he departed
and returned to the house of his friend Attaf and saluted him with a prepossessed
heart. As soon as Attaf saw him he cast himself on his breast and kissed him
between the eyes, saying to him, O my lord, thou hast made me feel desolate
to-day by thine absence. Then Attaf, looking in the face of Ja'afar and reading
in it many words, continued to him, O my lord, I find thy countenance changed and
thy mind broken. Ja'afar answered, O my lord, since I left thee up to the
present time I have been suffering with a headache and a nervous attack for I was
sleeping upon my ear. The people in the mosk recited the afternoon prayer
without my knowing it, and now I have a mind to get an hour's sleep, probably I
shall find repose for the body, and what I suffer will pass off. Accordingly,
Attaf went into the house and ordered cushions to be brought out and a bed to be
made for him. Ja'afar then stretched himself upon it depressed and out of
spirits, and covering himself up began to think of the young lady and of the
offensive words she gave him so contrary to usage. Also he thoguht of her beauty
and the elegance of her stature and perfect proportions and of what Allah (to
whom be praise!) had granted her of magnificence. He forgot all that happened
to him in other days and also his affair with the Caliph and his people and his
friends and his society. Such was the burden of his thoughts until he was taken
with monomania and his body wasted. Hereupon Attaf sent for doctors, they
surrounded him constantly, they employed all their talents for him, but they
could find no remedy. So he remained during a certain time without anyone being
able to discover what was the matter with him. The breast of Attaf became
straitened, he renounced all diversions and pleasures, and Ja'afar getting worse
and worse, his trouble augmented. One day a new doctor arrived, a man of
experience in the art of gallantry, whose name was Dabdihkán. When he came to
Ja'afar and looked at his face and felt his pulse and found everything in its
place, no suffering, no pain, he comprehended that he was in love, so he took a
paper and wrote a prescription and placed it beneath Ja'afar's head. He then
said, Thy remedy is under thy head, I've prescribed a purge, if thou take it thou
wilt get well, for he was ashamed to tell Attaf his love-sick condition.
Presently, the Doctor went away to other patients and Attaf arose and when about
entering to see Ja'afar he heard him recite the following verses:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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