The Thousand and One Nights Volume IV Part 21

I looked on her whom I adore And longing rose in me full sore.

But he knew not what to say next; so he sent for Abou Nuwas and bade him make a piece of verse commencing with the above line. 'I hear and obey,' replied the poet and in a twinkling extemporized the following lines:

I looked on her whom I adore, And longing rose in me full sore For a gazelle that ravished me, By double lote-trees shaded o'er.

The water on her dainty part With silver ewer did she pour And would have hidden it, seeing me, But all too small her hands therefor.

Would I were on it, wel-a-way, An hour or liefer two or more!

The Khalif smiled and made him a handsome present, and he went away rejoicing.

HAROUN ER REs.h.i.+D AND THE THREE POETS.

The Khalif Haroun er Res.h.i.+d was exceeding restless one night; so he rose and walked about his palace, till he happened on a damsel overcome with wine. Now he was greatly enamoured of this damsel; so he toyed with her and pulled her to him, whereupon her girdle fell down and her trousers were unloosed and he besought her of amorous dalliance. But she said to him, 'O Commander of the Faithful, wait till to-morrow night, for I am unprepared for thee, knowing not of thy coming.' So he left her and went away.

On the morrow, he sent a page to her to announce his visit to her apartment; but she sent back to him, saying, 'The day obliterates the promise of the night.' So he said to his minions, 'Make me somewhat of verse, introducing these words, "The day obliterates the promise of the night."' 'We hear and obey,' answered they; and Er Recas.h.i.+[FN#96] came forward and recited the following:

By Allah, an thou feltst my longing and my pain, Repose had turned away from thee and taken flight.

A maid hath made me love-distraught, nor visiting Nor being visited, a sad and love-lorn wight.

She promised me her grace, then turned away and said, "The day obliterates the promise of the night."

Then Abou Musab came forward and recited these verses:

When wilt thou put away this dotage from thy spright? Thy heart is dazed and rest to thee forbidden quite.

Is't not enough for thee to have a weeping eye And vitals still on fire for memory and despite?

For self-conceit, indeed, he laugheth, when he saith, "The day obliterates the promise of the night."

Last came Abou Nuwas and recited the following:

Love was prolonged and far was union out of sight, Nor skilled it aught to feign aversion and despite.

One day, she came into the palace, drunk with wine, But even her drunkenness with pudour was bedight.

Her upper garments dropped and left her shoulders bare And loosened trousers showed the dwelling of delight; Yea, and the breeze shook hips, full heavy, and a shape, As 'twere a branch, whereon pomegranates twain unite.

"Give me a tryst," quoth I; and she replied, "The place Of visiting will be to-morrow clean and right."

Next day, I came and said, "Thy promise;" but quoth she, "The day obliterates the promise of the night."

The Khalif bestowed a myriad each on Er Recas.h.i.+ and Abou Musab, but bade strike off Abou Nuwas's head, saying, 'Thou west with us yesternight in the palace.' 'By Allah,' answered the poet, 'I slept not but in my own house! I was directed to what I said by thine own words as to the subject of the poem; and indeed quoth G.o.d the Most High (and He is the truest of all speakers), "As for poets (devils ensue them!) dost thou not see how they run wild in each valley and say that they do not?"'[FN#97] So the Khalif forgave him and bestowed on him two myriads of gold.

MUSAB BEN EZ ZUBEIR AND AAISHEH DAUGHTER OF TELHEH.

It is told of Musab ben ez Zubeir[FN#98] that he met Izzeh, who was one of the shrewdest of women, in Medina and said to her, 'I have a mind to marry Aaisheh,[FN#99] daughter of Telheh, and I would have thee go to her and spy out for me how she is made.' So she went and returning to Musab, said, 'I have seen her, and her face is more beautiful than health; she hath large and well-opened eyes, an aquiline nose and smooth, oval cheeks and a mouth like a cleft pomegranate, a neck like an ewer of silver and a bosom with two b.r.e.a.s.t.s like twin pomegranates, a slim waist and a slender belly, with a navel therein as it were a casket of ivory, and backside like a hummock of sand.

Moreover, she hath plump thighs and legs like columns of alabaster; but I saw her feet to be large, and thou wilt fall short with her in time of amorous dalliance.' Upon this report, he married her and Izzeh invited Aaisheh and the women of the tribe of Kureish to her house, when Aaisheh sang the following, with Musab standing by:

The mouths of girls, with their odoriferous, Sweet breath and their witching smiles, are sweet to buss; Yet ne'er have I tasted them, but in thought of him; And by thought, indeed, the Ruler rules over us.

The night of his going in to her, he departed not from her, till after seven courses; and on the morrow, a freed-woman of his met him and said to him, 'May I be thy ransom! Thou art perfect, even in this.'

Quoth a certain woman, 'I was with Aaisheh, when her husband came in to her, and she l.u.s.ted to him; so he fell upon her and she puffed and snorted and made use of all manner of rare motions and strange inventions, and I the while within hearing.

So when he came out from her, I said to her, "How canst thou, with thy rank and n.o.bility and condition, do thus, and I in thy house?" Quoth she, "A woman should bring her husband all of which she is mistress, by way of excitations and rare motions.

What mislikest thou of this?" And I answered, "I would have this anights." "Thus is it by day," rejoined she, "and by night I do more than this; for, when he sees me, desire stirs in him and he falls on heat; so he puts out his hand to me and I obey him, and it is as thou seest."'

ABOUL ASWED AND HIS SQUINTING SLAVE-GIRL.

Aboul Aswed bought a native-born slave-girl, who was squint- eyed, and she pleased him; but his people decried her to him; whereat he wondered and spreading out his hands, recited the following verses:

They run her down to me, and yet no fault in her find I, Except perhaps it be a speck she hath in either eye.

To compensate this fault, if fault it be, o' the upper parts She's slim and heavy of the parts beneath the waist that lie.

HAROUN ER REs.h.i.+D AND THE TWO SLAVE-GIRLS.

The Khalif Haroun er Res.h.i.+d lay one night between two slave-girls, one from Medina and the other from Cufa, and the latter rubbed his hands, whilst the former rubbed his feet and made his yard to stand up. Quoth the Cufan girl, 'I see thou wouldst keep the whole of the stock-in-trade to thyself; give me my share of it.' And the other answered, 'I have been told by Malik, on the authority of Hisham ibn Orweh,[FN#100] who had it of his [grand]father,[FN#101]

that the Prophet said, "Whoso bringeth the dead to life, it is his."' But the Cufan took her unawares and pus.h.i.+ng her away, took it all in her own hand and said, 'El Aamesh[FN#102] tells us, on the authority of Kheithemeh,[FN#103] who had it of Abdallah ben Mesoud,[FN#104] that the Prophet said, "Game belongeth to him who taketh it, not to him who raiseth it."'

THE KHALIF HAROUN ER REs.h.i.+D AND THE THREE SLAVE-GIRLS.

The Khalif Haroun er Res.h.i.+d lay once with three slave-girls, a Meccan, a Medinan and an Irakite. The Medina girl put her hand to his yard and handled it, whereupon it rose and the Meccan sprang up and drew it to herself. Quoth the other, 'What is this unjust aggression? I have heard of Malik,[FN#105] on the authority of Ez Zuhri,[FN#106] who had it of Abdallah ibn Salim,[FN#107] on the report of Said ben Zeid,[FN#108] that the Apostle (whom G.o.d bless and preserve) said, "Whoso revivifies a dead land, it is his."' And the Meccan answered, 'Sufyan[FN#109]

tells us, on the authority of Abou Zenad,[FN#110] who had it of El Aarej,[FN#111] on the report of Abou Hureireh,[FN#112] that the Apostle of G.o.d said, "The game is his who catches it, not his who starts it."' But the Irak girl pushed them both away and taking it to herself, said, 'This is mine, till your contention be decided.'