The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 03 (of 10) — John Shaqi
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 03 (of 10)
General
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 03 (of 10)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that King Shahriman
thus addressed the Wazir and Aziz, "Salute your King from me and inform
him of what ye have heard, namely that my daughter misliketh marriage."
So they turned away unsuccessful and ceased not faring on till they
rejoined the King and told him what had passed; whereupon he commanded
the chief officers to summon the troops and get them ready for marching
and campaigning. But the Wazir said to him, "O my liege Lord, do not
thus: the King is not at fault because, when his daughter learnt our
business, she sent a message saying, 'If my father force me to wed,
whomsoever I wed I will slay and myself after him.' So the refusal
cometh from her." When the King heard his Minister's words he feared
for Taj al-Muluk and said, "Verily if I make war on the King of the
Camphor Islands and carry off his daughter, she will kill herself and
it will avail me naught." Then he told his son how the case stood, who
hearing it said, "O my father, I cannot live without her; so I will go
to her and contrive to get at her, even though I die in the attempt,
and this only will I do and nothing else." Asked his father, "How wilt
thou go to her?" and he answered, "I will go in the guise of a
merchant."[FN#11] Then said the King, "If thou need must go and there
is no help for it, take with thee the Wazir and Aziz." Then he brought
out money from his treasuries and made ready for his son merchandise to
the value of an hundred thousand dinars. The two had settled upon this
action; and when the dark hours came Taj al-Muluk and Aziz went to
Aziz's lodgings and there passed that night, and the Prince was heart
smitten, taking no pleasure in food or in sleep; for melancholy was
heavy upon him and he was agitated with longing for his beloved. So he
besought the Creator that he would vouch safe to unite him with her and
he wept and groaned and wailed and began versifying,
"Union, this severance ended, shall I see some day? * Then shall
my tears this love lorn lot of me portray.
While night all care forgets I only minded thee, * And thou didst
gar me wake while all forgetful lay."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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