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
"Now is my dread to incur reproaches, which *
Disturb her temper and her mind obscure,
Patient I'll bear them; e'en as generous youth his case to
cure.'' * Beareth the burn of brand his case to
cure."[FN#70]
And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted
say.
When it was the One Hundred and Thirty-ninth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Grand
Chamberlain became Sultan they named him King Sásán; and after he had
assumed the throne he governed the people in righteous way. Now as he
was giving audience one day, Kanmakan's verses came to his knowledge.
Thereupon he repented him of the past and going in to his wife Nuzhat
al-Zaman, said to her, "Verily, to join Halfah grass and fire,[FN#71]
is the greatest of risks, and man may not be trusted with woman, so
long as eye glanceth and eyelid quivereth. Now thy brother's son,
Kanmakan, is come to man's estate and it behoveth us to forbid him
access to the rooms where anklets trinkle, and it is yet more needful
to forbid thy daughter the company of men, for the like of her should
be kept in the Harim." Replied she, "Thou sayest sooth, O wise King!"
Next day came Kanmakan according to his wont; and, going in to his aunt
saluted her. She returned his salutation and said to him, "O my son!
I have some what to say to thee which I would fain leave unsaid; yet I
must tell it thee despite my inclination." Quoth he, "Speak;" and quoth
she, Know then that thy sire the Chamberlain, the father of Kuzia
Fakan, hath heard of the verses thou madest anent her, and hath ordered
that she be kept in the Harim and out of thy reach; if therefore, O my
son, thou want anything from us, I will send it to thee from behind the
door; and thou shalt not look upon Kuzia Fakan nor shalt thou return
hither from this day forth." When he heard this he arose and withdrew
with out speaking a single word; and, betaking himself to his mother
related what his aunt had said. She observed, "This all cometh of
thine overtalking. Thou knowest that the news of thy passion for Kuzia
Fakan is noised abroad and the tattle hath spread everywhere how thou
eatest their food and thereafter thou courtest their daughter."
Rejoined he, "And who should have her but I? She is the daughter of my
father's brother and I have the best of rights to her." Retorted his
mother, "These are idle words. Be silent, lest haply thy talk come to
King Sasan's ears and it prove the cause of thy losing her and the
reason of thy ruin and increase of thine affliction. They have not sent
us any supper to-night and we shall die an hungered; and were we in any
land but this, we were already dead of famine or of shame for begging
our bread." When Kanmakan heard these words from his mother, his
regrets redoubled; his eyes ran over with tears and he complained and
began improvising,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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