The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 02 (of 10)
General
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 02 (of 10)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
to thee that thou mayst give them refuge, and rescue them from beggary, for
they are not of asker-folk and, if it please Allah, we shall enter Paradise
through them." "By Allah, O my master," cried she, "thou makest me long to see
them! Where are they?", adding, "Here with them to me!" So he bade the eunuch
bring them in; and, when she looked on them; and saw that they were both of
distinguished beauty, she wept for them; and said, "By Allah, these are people
of condition and show plain signs of former opulence." "O my lady," said the
Syndic's wife, "we love the poor and the destitute, more especially as reward
in Heaven will recompense our love; and, as for these persons, haply the
oppressor hath dealt hardly with them; and hath plundered their property and
harried their houses." Then Ghanim's mother and sister wept with sore weeping,
remembering their former prosperity and contrasting it with their present
poverty and miserable condition; and their thoughts dwelt upon son and brother,
whilst Kut al-Kulub wept for their weeping; and they said, "We beseech Allah to
reunite us with him whom we desire, and he is none other but my son named
Ghanim bin Ayyub!" When Kut al-Kulub heard this, she knew them to be the mother
and sister of her lover and wept till a swoon came over her. When she revived
she turned to them; and said, "Have no fear and sorrow not, for this day is the
first of your prosperity and the last of your adversity!"—And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Forty-fourth Night,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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