The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume VIII Part 25

Yet blame him not whom his woes waylay * Who distraught shall say in his agony, 'Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!'

Excuse such lovers in flight abhorr'd * Nor to Love's distreses thine aid afford: Lest thy self be bound by same binding cord * And drink of Love's bitterest injury.

'Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!'

In His service I wont as the days went by * With freest heart through the nights to lie; Nor tasted wake, nor of Love aught reckt * Ere my heart to subjection summoned he: 'Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!'

None weet of Love and his humbling wrong * Save those he sickened so sore, so long, Who have lost their wits 'mid the lover-throng * Draining bitterest cup by his hard decree: 'Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!'

How oft in Night's gloom he cause wake to rue * Lovers' eyne, and from eyelids their sleep withdrew; Till tears to the railing of torrents grew, * Overflowing cheeks , unconfined and free: 'Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!'

How many a man he has joyed to steep * In pain, and for pine hath he plundered sleep,-- Made don garb of mourning the deepest deep * And even his dreaming forced to flee: 'Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!'

How oft sufferance fails me! How bones are wasted * And down my cheeks torrent tear-drops hasted: And embittered She all the food I tasted * However sweet it was wont to be: 'Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!'

Most hapless of men who like me must love, * And must watch when Night droops her wing from above, Who, swimming the main where affection drove * Must sign and sink in that gloomy sea: 'Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!'

Who is he to whom Love e'er stinted spite * And who scaped his springes and easy sleight; Who free from Love lived in life's delight? * Where is he can boast of such liberty?

'Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!'

Deign Lord such suffering wight maintain * Then best Protector, protect him deign!

Establish him and his life a.s.sain * And defend him from all calamity: 'Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!'"

And when Nur al-Din ended his say and ceased to sing his rhyming lay, the Wazir's daughter said to herself, "By the virtue of the Messiah and the Faith which is no liar, verily this Moslem is a handsome youth! But doubtless he is a lover separated from his mistress. Would Heaven I wot an the beloved of this fair one is fair like unto him and if she pine for him as he for her! An she be seemly as he is, it behoveth him to pour forth tears and make moan of pa.s.sion; but, an she be other than fair, his days are wasted in vain regrets and he is denied the taste of delights."--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

When it was the Eight Hundred and Eighty-eighth Night,

She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir's daughter said to herself, "An his beloved be fair as he, it behoveth him to pour forth tears; and, if other than fair, his heart is wasted in vain regrets!" Now Miriam the Girdle-girl, the Minister's consort, had removed to the new palace the day before and the Wazir's daughter knew that she was straitened of breast; so she was minded to seek her and talk with her and tell her the tidings of the young man and the rhymes and verses she had heard him recite; but, before she could carry out her design the Princess sent for her to cheer her with her converse. So she went to her and found her heavy at heart and her tears hurrying down her cheeks; and whilst she was weeping with sore weeping she recited these couplets,

"My life is gone but love-longings remain * And my breast is straitened with pine and pain: And my heart for parting to melt is fain * Yet hoping that union will come again, And join us in one who now are twain.

Stint your blame to him who in heart's your thrall * With the wasted frame which his sorrows gall, Nor with aim of arrow his heart appal * For parted lover is saddest of all, And Love's cup of bitters is sweet to drain!"

Quoth the Wazir's daughter to her, "What aileth thee, O Princess, to be thus straitened in breast and sorrowful of thought?"

Whereupon Miriam recalled the greatness of the delights that were past and recited these two couplets,

"I will bear in patience estrangement of friend * And on cheeks rail tears that like torrents wend: Haply Allah will solace my sorrow, for He * Neath the ribs of unease maketh ease at end."

Said the Wazir's daughter, "O Princess, let not thy breast be straitened, but come with me straightway to the lattice; for there is with us in the stable[FN#556] a comely young man, slender of shape and sweet of speech, and meseemeth he is a parted lover." Miriam asked, "And by what sign knowest thou that he is a parted lover?"; and she answered, "O Queen, I know it by his improvising odes and verses all watches of the night and tides of the day." Quoth the Princess in herself, "If what the Wazir's daughter says be true, these are a.s.suredly the traits of the baffled, the wretched Ali Nur al-Din. Would I knew if indeed he be the youth of whom she speaketh." At this thought, love-longing and distraction of pa.s.sion redoubled on her and she rose at once and walking with the maiden to the lattice, looked down upon the stables, where she saw her love and lord Nur al-Din and fixing her eyes steadfastly upon him, knew him with the bestest knowledge of love, albeit he was sick, of the greatness of his affection for her and of the fire of pa.s.sion, and the anguish of separation and yearning and distraction. Sore upon him was emaciation and he was improvising and saying,

"My heart is a thrall; my tears ne'er abate * And their rains the railing of clouds amate; 'Twixt my weeping and watching and wanting love; * And whining and pining for dearest mate.

Ah my burning heat, my desire, my lowe! * For the plagues that torture my heart are eight; And five upon five are in suite of them; * So stand and listen to all I state: Mem'ry, madding thoughts, moaning languishment, * Stress of longing love, plight disconsolate; In travail, affliction and strangerhood, * And annoy and joy when on her I wait.

Fail me patience and stay for engrossing care * And sorrows my suffering soul regrate.

On my heart the possession of pa.s.sion grows * O who ask of what fire in my heart's create, Why my tears in vitals should kindle flame, * Burning heart with ardours insatiate, Know, I'm drowned in Deluge[FN#557] of tears and my soul * From Laza-lowe fares to Hawiyah-goal."[FN#558]

When the Princess Miriam beheld Nur al-Din and heard his loquence and verse and speech, she made certain that it was indeed her lord Nur al-Din; but she concealed her case from the Wazir's daughter and said to her, "By the virtue of the Messiah and the Faith which is no liar, I thought not thou knewest of my sadness!" Then she arose forthright and withdrawing from the window, returned to her own place, whilst the Wazir's daughter went to her own occupations. The Princess awaited patiently awhile, then returned to the window and sat there, gazing upon her beloved Nur al-Din and delighting her eyes with his beauty and inner and outer grace. And indeed, she saw that he was like unto moon at full on fourteenth night; but he was ever sighing with tears never drying, for that he recalled whatso he had been abying. So he recited these couplets,

"I hope for Union with my love which I may ne'er obtain * At all, but bitterness of life is all the gain I gain: My tears are likest to the main for ebb and flow of tide; * But when I meet the blamer-wight to staunch my tears I'm fain.

Woe to the wretch who garred us part by spelling of his spells;[FN#559] * Could I but hend his tongue in hand I'd cut his tongue in twain: Yet will I never blame the days for whatso deed they did *

Mingling with merest, purest gall the cup they made me drain!

To whom shall I address myself; and whom but you shall seek * A heart left hostage in your Court, by you a captive ta'en?

Who shall avenge my wrongs on you,[FN#560] tyrant despotical *

Whose tyranny but grows the more, the more I dare complain?

I made him regnant of my soul that he the reign a.s.sain * But me he wasted wasting too the soul I gave to reign.

Ho thou, the Fawn, whom I so lief erst gathered to my breast *

Enow of severance tasted I to own its might and main, Thou'rt he whose favours joined in one all beauties known to man, * Yet I thereon have wasted all my Patience' fair domain.

I entertained him in my heart whereto he brought unrest * But I am satisfied that I such guest could entertain.

My tears for ever flow and flood, likest the surging sea * And would I wot the track to take that I thereto attain.

Yet sore I fear that I shall die in depths of my chagrin * And must despair for evermore to win the wish I'd win."

When Miriam heard the verses of Nur al-Din the loving-hearted, the parted; they kindled in her vitals a fire of desire, and while her eyes ran over with tears, she recited these two couplets,

"I longed for him I love; but, when we met, * I was amazed nor tongue nor eyes I found.

I had got ready volumes of reproach; * But when we met, could syllable no sound."

When Nur al-Din heard the voice of Princess Miriam, he knew it and wept bitter tears, saying, "By Allah, this is the chanting of the Lady Miriam."--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

End of Volume 8.

Arabian Nights, Volume 8 Footnotes

[FN#1] Ironice; we are safe as long as we are defended by such a brave.

[FN#2] Blue, azure. This is hardly the place for a protest, but I must not neglect the opportunity of cautioning my readers against rendering Bahr al-Azrak ("Blue River") by "Blue Nile." No Arab ever knew it by that name or thereby equalled it with the White Nile. The term was a pure invention of Abyssinian Bruce who was well aware of the unfact he was propagating, but his inordinate vanity and self-esteem, contrasting so curiously with many n.o.ble qualities, especially courage and self-reliance, tempted him to this and many other a traveller's tale.

[FN#3] This is orthodox Moslem doctrine and it does something for the dignity of human nature which has been so unwisely depreciated and degraded by Christianity. The contrast of Moslem dignity and Christian abas.e.m.e.nt in the East is patent to every unblind traveller.

[FN#4] Here ends vol. iii. of the Mac. Edit.

[FN#5] This famous tale is a sister prose-poem to the "Arabian Odyssey" Sindbad the Seaman; only the Ba.s.sorite's travels are in Jinn-land and j.a.pan. It has points of resemblance in "fundamental outline" with the Persian Romance of the Fairy Hasan Banu and King Bahram-i-Gur. See also the Katha (s.s.) and the two sons of the Asura Maya; the Tartar "Sidhi Kur" (Tales of a Vampire or Enchanted Corpse) translated by Mr. W. J. Thoms (the Father of "Folk-lore" in 1846,) in "Lays and Legends of various Nations"; the Persian Bahar-i-Danish (Prime of Lore). Miss Stokes' "Indian Fairy Tales"; Miss Frere's "Old Deccan Days" and Mrs. F. A. Steel's "Tale of the King and his Seven Sons," with notes by Lieutenant (now Captain) R. C. Temple (Folk-lore of the Panjab, Indian Antiquary of March, 1882).

[FN#6] In the Mac. Edit. (vol. iv. i.) the merchant has two sons who became one a brazier ("dealer in copper-wares" says Lane iii. 385) and the other a goldsmith. The Bresl. Edit. (v. 264) mentions only one son, Hasan, the hero of the story which is ent.i.tled, "Tale of Hasan al-Basri and the Isles of Wak Wak."

[FN#7] Arab. "Shash Abyaz:" this distinctive sign of the True Believer was adopted by the Persian to conceal his being a fire-wors.h.i.+pper, Magian or "Guebre." The latter word was introduced from the French by Lord Byron and it is certainly far superior to Moore's "Gheber."

[FN#8] Persians being always a suspected folk.

[FN#9] Arab. "Al-Budikah" afterwards used (Night dcclxxix) in the sense of crucible or melting-pot, in modern parlance a pipe-bowl; and also written "Butakah," an Arab distortion of the Persian "Butah."

[FN#10] Arab. "Sindan" or "Sindiyan" (Dozy). "Sandan," anvil; "Sindan," big, strong (Steinga.s.s).

[FN#11] Arab. "Kimiya," (see vol. i. 305) properly the substance which trans.m.u.tes metals, the "philosopher's stone"

which, by the by, is not a stone; and comes from , a fluid, a wet drug, as opposed to Iksir (Al-) a dry drug. Those who care to see how it is still studied will consult my History of Sindh (chapt. vii) and my experience which pointed only to the use made of it in base coinage. Hence in mod. tongue Kimiyawi, an alchemist, means a coiner, a smasher. The reader must not suppose that the trans.m.u.tation of metals is a dead study: I calculate that there are about one hundred workers in London alone.

[FN#12] Arab. "Al-Kir," a bellows also = Kur, a furnace. For the full meaning of this sentence, see my "Book of the Sword," p.

119.

[FN#13] Lit. "bade him lean upon it with the shears" (Al-Kaz).