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
Moreover, she sought among the gold and found therein the
talisman, which she took and examined and behold, it was that which
Kamar al- Zaman had taken from off the band of her petticoat trousers.
Thereupon she cried out for joy and slipped down in a swoon;—And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted
say.
When it was the Two Hundred and Sixteenth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when King Budur
saw the talisman she cried out for joy and slipped down in a swoon; and
when she recovered she said to herself, "Verily, this talisman was the
cause of my separation from my beloved Kamar al-Zaman; but now it is an
omen of good." Then she showed it to Hayat al-Nufus and said to her,
"This was the cause of disunion and now, please Allah, it shall be the
cause of reunion." As soon as day dawned she seated herself on the
royal throne and sent for the ship-master, who came into the presence
and kissed the ground before her. Quoth she, "Where didst thou leave
the owner of these olives?" Quoth he, "O King of the age, we left him
in the land of the Magians and he is a gardener there." She rejoined,
"Except thou bring him to me, thou knowest not the harm which awaiteth
thee and thy ship." Then she bade them seal up the magazines of the
merchants and said to them, "Verily the owner of these olives hath
borrowed of me and I have a claim upon him for debt and, unless ye
bring him to me, I will without fail do you all die and seize your
goods." So they went to the captain and promised him the hire of the
ship, if he would go and return a second time, saying, "Deliver us from
this masterful tyrant." Accordingly the skipper embarked and set sail
and Allah decreed him a prosperous voyage, till he came to the Island
of the Magians and, landing by night, went up to the garden. Now the
night was long upon Kamar al-Zaman, and he sat, bethinking him of his
beloved, and bewailing what had befallen him and versifying,
"A night whose stars refused to run their course, *
A night of those which never seem outworn:
Like Resurrection-day, of longsome length[FN#334] *
To him that watched and waited for the morn."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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