The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 07 (of 10)
General
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 07 (of 10)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
I will put thee in the right way.” Accordingly, I dismounted and
hobbled my she-camel with the end of her halter;[FN#132] then I put
off my heavy upper clothes and sat down. Presently the young man took a
sheep and slaughtered it and kindled a brisk fire; after which he went
into the tent and bringing out finely powdered salt and spices, fell to
cutting off pieces of mutton and roasting them over the fire and
feeding me therewith, weeping at one while and sighing at another. Then
he groaned heavily and wept sore and improvised these couplets,
“There remains to him naught save a flitting breath * And an eye
whose babe ever wandereth.
There remains not a joint in his limbs, but what * Disease firm
fixt ever tortureth.
His tears are flowing, his vitals burning; * Yet for all his
tongue still he silenceth.
All foemen in pity beweep his woes; * Ah for freke whom the
foeman pitieth!”
By this I knew, O Commander of the Faithful, that the youth was a
distracted lover (for none knoweth passion save he who hath tasted the
passion-savour), and quoth I to myself, “Shall I ask him?” But I
consulted my judgment and said, “How shall I assail him with
questioning, and I in his abode?” So I restrained myself and ate my
sufficiency of the meat. When we had made an end of eating, the young
man arose and entering the tent, brought out a handsome basin and ewer
and a silken napkin, whose ends were purfled with red gold and a
sprinkling-bottle full of rose-water mingled with musk. I marvelled at
his dainty delicate ways and said in my mind, “Never wot I of delicacy
in the desert.” Then we washed our hands and talked a while, after
which he went into the tent and making a partition between himself and
me with a piece of red brocade, said to me, “Enter, O Chief of the
Arabs, and take thy rest; for thou hast suffered more of toil and
travel than sufficeth this night and in this thy journey.” So I entered
and finding a bed of green brocade, doffed my dress and passed a night
such as I had never passed in my life.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn
of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Six Hundred and Ninetieth Night,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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