When sorceress Nihal heard her father’s voice, she looked in all directions, wondering whom he challenged. Amar then cuffed Nihal, put on the cape of invisibility, and jumped from the throne shouting to Baghban, “Beware, O bastard! I am the Sun of the Sky of Trickery,
“I am Amar who stole headgears from emperors’ heads
I am the one who drains Bakhtak’s face of all blood
In the assembly of kings if I am a cupbearer appointed
Swords and shields, ewers and goblets I would embezzle.
“You escaped my hand, O Baghban, otherwise I would have dispatched you and your whole family hellward.” Amar escaped after uttering this threat.
Baghban approached Nihal and said, “You made a terrible mistake conducting Amar across the river into Zahir.” Nihal excused herself by professing her ignorance about the matter.
Finally, Baghban and his daughter returned home. Baghban searched for Gulchin and found her lying unconscious in the summerhouse. He restored her to her senses and gave her the entire account of what had occurred. Baghban said, “I will now go and arrest Amar from Mahrukh’s court, where he is certain to make an appearance after taking off his cape of invisibility.” Gulchin threw herself at Baghban’s feet and said, “O Baghban, I beg you in the name of lords Sameri and Jamshed not to interfere in the tricksters’ affairs. Since the tricksters cause even the emperor such grief, imagine how ill we would fare against them. You must desist from pursuing them lest the tricksters kill you in their exasperation. You saw how Amar traveled from Batin to Zahir in a trice, and the emperor was unable to do anything about it.”
At Gulchin’s advice, Baghban finally desisted from his plan. He went before Afrasiyab and gave him the details of how Amar escaped. Afrasiyab remained silent out of consideration of the fact that if he censured Baghban further, he might also join Mahrukh’s side.
In the meanwhile, Amar Ayyar arrived in his camp. His presence caused great joy among his commanders and he joined the court.
Now hear of the trickster girl Sarsar. After she left Baghban’s garden, she realized that Amar would be unable to cross the River of Flowing Blood, Qiran would be in his abode in the wilderness and the remaining tricksters would be occupied with their own errands. She considered breaking into Amar’s unprotected camp to capture someone eminent, like Queen Mahrukh or Bahar, so she could humiliate Amar in the same way he had disgraced her.
Sarsar crossed the river and entered Mahrukh’s camp in disguise. She rested and waited all day long for an opportunity. When the Trekker of the Desert of Heavens123 disappeared in its westerly pavilion and Night’s Beloved124 showed its moon-like face in the mirror of sky, the bride of heaven filled up her parting with stars.
Mahrukh adjourned her court and all her commanders returned to their pavilions.
It has been recounted that Queen Mahrukh’s son, sorcerer Shakeel, was enamored of Heyrat’s daughter, Princess Khubsurat. As Afrasiyab did not approve of the union, Khubsurat was put under magic incarceration in Batin. Every night upon returning to his pavilion, Shakeel remained engrossed in the memory of his beloved’s locks; separation from her tormented him relentlessly. He recited these verses constantly,
“Entangled in her enticing locks
I myself made my heart her captive.”
That night too, as was his wont, Shakeel returned to his pavilion with a heavy heart and restive soul and cried copiously like a cloud of spring quarter. In his grief, he rent his robe from collar to hem. Although it was a moonlit night, it was the same to him as utter darkness without the light of his beloved’s beautiful, luminous aspect. Shakeel called out, “The old man of heavens has become my enemy. It’s not the moon but a torch lit in the heavens to burn me! What glares at me from amidst stars is a ball of pitch!”
He recited,
“O Tyrant, on torment bent
Pardon all this sinner’s sins
Given that beloveds are by nature cruel
Known to break their word and oaths
Yet be not so despotic that your subjects should die
Be not so excessive that your lovers breathe their last
If you truly wish to keep
Your lover from your presence away
I ask you – as a sacrifice for your charming locks, May your coldness, cruelty and harshness flourish!
I ask you – in the name of your indifference,
May your airs of vanity and conceit endure!
Draw your relentless dagger, O lovely executioner
And slaughter me once, for all time
Then your lover would receive what he covets
All his griefs and sorrows would come to an end.”
In this way, Shakeel made a hundred plaints
Without finding redress or eliciting a single reply
His passion grew stronger with every moment
He recited fervently these verses in love
“My eyes were made a vessel that overflows with tears
Their charity has not yet ceased
That you and I are irreconcilably apart
Makes life for me a worthless exercise
Who sleeps? Sleep seeks not my eyes
I am sought alone by tears and nights of separation
You disgraced my love first, then of my plight made light
None so disgraced as I could hope for last rites
She who never counted me among her favored ones
Finally counts the breaths that now remain to me
When alive I was driven away from her assembly, from her
presence
In death none would expel me; I dance in her alley now as dust.”
As he sat grieving, it occurred to Shakeel that he should lighten his heart by a jaunt in the desert and, Majnun-like, while away the night in the memory of his beloved. Shakeel’s hands spoke to him, saying, “Let us reach again for the collar.” His feet longed to roam the desert.
Shakeel told himself that he would return to his camp in the morning and no one would notice his absence. His laden heart would be lightened and grief would lift its dark shadow from his soul. Driven by these thoughts, crying and weeping, Shakeel headed into the wilderness, at every step shedding ears from his unrequited heart. He recited the verses:
“How to recount what became of my heart
It counts its beats in my beloved’s alley, my heart
Neither I nor my heart wish to witness the other’s despair
My heart avoids me and I avoid my heart
Now beside me now beside my beloved
Regard how omnipresent is my heart
Do not put it under the lodestone of separation
The frailest of all frail creatures is my heart
How can I call anyone my friend
When my own breast has borne an enemy – my heart
The caravan of past lovers has left in its wake the dust
In its cloud it dances particle like, my heart.”
As Shakeel proceeded alone on his way, he was sighted by Sarsar, who awaited an opportunity. The trickster girl stealthily pursued him.
Once he entered the desert, Shakeel sat down under a hill on a stone slab and engrossed himself in the scenery to soothe his heart.
Sarsar was well aware of Shakeel’s unhappy love for Khubsurat. Seeing Shakeel in a pensive mood, she disguised herself as Princess Khubsurat’s attendant, approached and saluted the prince. Sarsar said, “Do you recognize me, O prince?” Shakeel replied, “I don’t know who you are; I no longer even know who I am.
“Although I appear to be of this world
I don’t know who I am, where I am.”
Sarsar answered, “I am the attendant of your beloved, Princess Khubsurat. I have lived in this desert ever since she was exiled and imprisoned.” When Shakeel heard that she was his beloved’s attendant, he broke into tears all over again. The false attendant said, “Just as you are infatuated with the beauty of your beloved, she too, suffered pangs of separation from you. Such was her
condition that,
“Each other’s friends and familiars, you two
Became prisoners of longing and grief before long
While her love in your heart resided
Your love was kneaded into her very essence
Like Majnun you desert-wards headed
Crying, ‘Ah! O beloved!’ Crying, ‘Ah! O longing and pain!’
And that picture of excellence, the princess
Dressed herself like the night in black
Candle like she melted away
But did not her secret suffering reveal
She ate neither a morsel nor drank a drop
The only thing that passed her lips, your name
Her story is a tale ripe with sorrow
This account is a fable most tragic
She is kept imprisoned in great pain and suffering
Her legs clasped in fetters, iron chokers round her neck
No longer of her past circumstances, no longer her former self
Like all tales of love hers too, in endless woe ends.”
When Shakeel heard this account of his beloved, he embraced the false attendant and cried without cease.
He said, “O tyrannical heavens,
“Now to this miserable state I am reduced
Unable to seek union with my beloved, Khubsurat
In this life I will pine away in separation
My soul too, would remain unrequited in afterlife
This longing for union with my beloved will cause
My last breaths to leave with difficulty my breast
With the writhing and turmoil of my restless heart
I would raze my house, the tomb, once interred
I did not leave happy this life in love
Unfulfilled and unsated in love I left this world.”
Seeing him in such agony, the false attendant took out a small box from her belt and placed it before the disconsolate lover. She said, “O sojourner on the path of commitment! O wanderer in the alleys of love! At the time of her imprisonment the princess touched her delicate lips to some green cardamoms and betel nuts and put them in this box. She asked me to bring these to her lover wherever I might find him, and to narrate to him her tragic state.”
Shakeel ate the drugged cardamoms from the box and fell unconscious. Sarsar tied him into a bundle and headed for Heyrat’s court.
In the meanwhile, the eastern lover with his bleeding heart emerged into the field of sky searching for his beloved,125 and the dark old woman night disappeared behind the screen of light.
Pass me the ewer of wine, O cupbearer
For I while away the night in shedding tears
The sun of troubles dawns on me again
And the morning of sorrows begins anew
Sarsar arrived in Heyrat’s court carrying the bundle containing sorcerer Shakeel, saluted the empress and put the bundle before her. Heyrat asked, “Whom have you brought?” Sarsar replied, “I brought you Mahrukh’s son and Princess Khubsurat’s lover, Shakeel.”
Heyrat put an incarceration spell on Shakeel and ordered that he be restored to his senses. When Shakeel opened his eyes he found himself a prisoner in Heyrat’s court. He called out,
“If you look with kind eyes toward the sufferers of ill repute
Throw one glance at me, for you yourself took my repute away
I do not want the Tooba tree’s126 shadow when I die
I wish that cypress beloved’s shadow to fall on my grave one day
If out of desiring you I have hundreds of troubles
I will never expel this desire out of my heart.
“O Empress, I am already imprisoned in the depths of grief. The locks on my beloved’s forehead keep me chained. What purpose would it serve to imprison me further? I will die shortly on my own, even without any hardships you may inflict.” After speaking these words Shakeel cried bitter tears of love.
Heyrat took pity on his condition and said, “O Shakeel, you are no stranger to me. You are the son of Mahrukh and the uncle of Afrasiyab’s daughter Mahjabeen. If you submit allegiance to me and do not side with your mother, I will marry you to Khubsurat.” Shakeel answered, “I wish neither to take sides with my mother nor you. I abhor the world. All I know is that I am helplessly in love with Princess Khubsurat. Set me any task you wish and I will fulfill it to attain my beloved. Order me and I will even go and fight my mother.”
Heyrat removed the incarceration spell from Shakeel and conferred a robe of honor on him. She asked one of her attendants, sorceress Taus, to release Princess Khubsurat from her magic prison, bring her to the Pleasure Garden and bathe and dress her so that she could be restored to times of happiness and joy before meeting Shakeel.
As ordered by Empress Heyrat, sorceress Taus removed the spell from the magic Ferris wheel where Princess Khubsurat sat and brought her to the Pleasure Garden.
The arrival of the rosy-cheeked Khubsurat augmented the beauty of the garden. The princess, whose narrow mouth resembled a rosebud, adorned and decorated herself when she heard the news that she would soon meet her lover.
Meanwhile, in Mahrukh’s camp the news circulated that Prince Shakeel had been captured. A little while later, news arrived that Shakeel had reverted to the faith of Sameri and joined Heyrat’s camp. Mahrukh was devastated to hear this. Amar Ayyar, who was present in the court, said to Mahrukh, “O Queen, once the tilism is conquered, thousands of children will return to their homes. If some don’t, there will be others to take their place. You should consider this event a blessing for your son; in our camp, he would have melted away and died for love of Khubsurat. There he will have reason to live. Thus, God created an excuse to save his life. You should be mindful of the bigger interests of your son and not let yourself be disillusioned by these day-to-day events. See my own example: Prince Asad was captured but I did not mourn. My brow did not become clouded in the least.”
In the end, Queen Mahrukh dispelled grief from her heart and resolved to be patient and show perseverance.
Prince Shakeel asked Empress Heyrat if he could have her permission to visit Princess Khubsurat. Heyrat gave her consent, saying, “You may go and spend one night in the Pleasure Garden to soothe your eyes with the beauty of the one you seek.”
At the same time, Empress Heyrat also secretly sent for sorceress Taus and said to her, “Furtively keep an eye on the two and ensure that they do not give in to their desire and commit the ultimate act.” After receiving these instructions sorceress Taus left.
Now hear of Prince Shakeel. As the poet has said,
When the time of union approached
The fire of desire more fiercely blazed
Prince Shakeel bathed and decked himself out in a fine costume.
When he entered the bathhouse
His youthful body with perspiration beaded
After washing and laving that flower of youth stepped out
Like the bright moon emerges from within dark clouds
The prince, his bath complete
In a robe of honor was royally dressed
He was adorned with inestimable jewels
Until his body a sea of jewels became
Bands of pearls, ear decorations, a nau-ratan necklace, an
aigrette
Each item of jewelry became him more than the last Its folds like swelling sea waves
His golden headgear shone bright like sun’s flower
The lovely bands he wore and bracelets of pearls
A sight to solace the heart, comfort the soul
Its every component a veritable Mount Tur
So brilliantly did the jewelry on his body shine
Thus adorned he proceeded out
Like a cypress sapling in full bloom
When he came out and mounted his steed
Salvers of pearls as his sacrifice were offered
When Princess Khubsurat heard of his approach, she too, adorned herself, decorated the garden, and arranged a musical assembly.
Quic
k O cupbearer, pass the glass of wine
Sound the notes O singers from your rebecks and lutes
Opened now is the door of revels and pleasure
Far from the heart is the familiar pain
The lover will have today the union long sought
As the assembly of revels its peak attains
Today I am released from constant longing
Today luck smiles even on the ill-starred
In the sky plays his tambourine the sun
In the heavens dances the lovely Venus
That delicate beauty, the garden’s soul
Rose from her place and bedecked her house entire
She put a golden throne in the center
And placed chairs beside it in neat rows
Then she adorned herself and sat waiting
Her beauty that day a vision to behold
The very sight of her pretty face
For lovers’ hearts was a thunderbolt
Her tender beauty of fourteen years
Was like the apex of the moon on the fourteenth day127
While she waited, the beautiful Shakeel
Arrived happy and joyous at her garden’s gate
He called out to her from the entrance
“Your lover – your sacrifice – is at your door.”
Hearing her lover’s pining voice
That houri-like beauty rushed to the garden gate
Accompanied by her lover, that moon-like beloved
Returned to the assembly smiling happily
Seven circles of sacrifice around him she made128
Then said, “Ah, my sleeping fortunes did awake!
All praise to the Almighty, All Powerful Lord!
All my sorrows have turned to joy today.
The eye of my heart with light is filled,
Now that I am in my lover’s embrace.
This was indeed my only wish,
This indeed my desire of old,
That I get sight of my dear beloved.
I prostrate myself to offer a thousand thanks.”
Seeing this degree of devotion from his beloved
The lover was beside himself with joy
Himself used to the hardships of love
His cup of joy overflowed, he lost consciousness
That moon-like beauty rushed to fetch
Hoshruba Page 46