The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 08 (of 10)
General
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 08 (of 10)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Hasan
went in unto the King's daughter and did away her maidenhead, he
enjoyed her with exceeding joy and affection for her waxed in him and
he redoubled in love-longing for her; so he recited the lines
aforesaid. Now the Princesses were standing at the door and when they
heard his verses, they said to her, "O King's daughter, hearest thou
the words of this mortal? How canst thou blame us, seeing that he
maketh poetry for love of thee and indeed he hath so done a thousand
times."[FN#77] When she heard this she rejoiced and was glad and felt
happy and Hasan abode with her forty[FN#78] days in all solace and
delight, joyance and happiest plight, whilst the damsels renewed
festivities for him every day and overwhelmed him with bounty and
presents and rarities; and the King's daughter became reconciled to her
sojourn amongst them and forgot her kith and kin. At the end of the
forty days, Hasan saw in a dream, one night, his mother mourning for
him and indeed her bones were wasted and her body had waxed shrunken
and her complexion had yellowed and her favour had changed the while he
was in excellent case. When she saw him in this state, she said to
him, "O my son, O Hasan, how is it that thou livest thy worldly life at
thine ease and forgettest me? Look at my plight since thy loss! I do
not forget thee, nor will my tongue cease to name thy name till I die;
and I have made thee a tomb in my house, that I may never forget thee.
Would Heaven I knew[FN#79] if I shall live, O my son, to see thee by my
side and if we shall ever again foregather as we were." Thereupon
Hasan awoke from sleep, weeping and wailing, the tears railed down his
cheeks like rain and he became mournful and melancholy; his tears dried
not nor did sleep visit him, but he had no rest, and no patience was
left to him. When he arose, the Princesses came in to him and gave him
good-morrow and made merry with him as was their wont; but he paid no
heed to them; so they asked his wife concerning his case and she said,
"I ken not." Quoth they, "Question him of his condition." So she went
up to him and said, "What aileth thee, O my lord?" Whereupon he moaned
and groaned and told her what he had seen in his dream and repeated
these two couplets,
"Indeed afflicted sore are we and all distraught, * Seeking for
union; yet we find no way:
And Love's calamities upon us grow * And Love though light with
heaviest weight doth weigh."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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