One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  Bid thou thine image no more molest My couch at the season of sleep and rest,

  So I may ease me and eke the fire Be quenched that flames in my tortured breast.

  For me, a sick one, whom passion’s hands On the couch of weeping turn East and West,

  My plight thou know’st; will thy favour ne’er Come back, relenting, to make me blest?

  Then said the Khalif, ‘Of what [part] of this encampment [art thou]?’ And she answered, ‘Of its midmost in dwelling and of its highest in tent-pole.’ Wherefore he knew that she was the chief’s daughter of the tribe. ‘And thou,’ asked she, ‘of what [art thou among] the guardians of the horses?’ Quoth he, ‘Of the highest in tree and of the ripest in fruit.’ ‘God protect thee, O Commander of the Faithful!’ said she and called down blessings on him. Then she went away with the maidens of the Arabs, and the Khalif said to Jaafer, ‘Needs must I take her to wife.’ So Jaafer repaired to her father and said to him, ‘The Commander of the Faithful hath a mind to thy daughter.’ ‘With all my heart,’ replied he; ‘she is a gift as a handmaid to His Highness our lord the Commander of the Faithful.’ So he equipped her and carried her to the Khalif, who took her to wife and went in to her, and she became of the dearest of his women to him.

  Moreover, he bestowed on her father largesse such as succoured him among the Arabs, till he was transported to the mercy of God the Most High. The Khalif, hearing of his death, went in to her, troubled; and when she saw him thus, she entered her chamber and putting off all that was upon her of rich apparel, donned mourning raiment and raised lament for her father. It was said to her, ‘What is the reason of this?’ And she answered, saying, ‘My father is dead.’ So they went in to the Khalif and told him and he rose and going in to her, asked her who had given her to know of her father’s death; and she answered, ‘It was thy face, O Commander of the Faithful!’ ‘How so?’ asked he; and she said, ‘Since I have been with thee, I never saw thee thus till now, and there was none for whom I feared save my father, by reason of his great age; but may thy head live, O Commander of the Faithful!’ When the Khalif heard this, his eyes filled with tears and he condoled with her; but she ceased not to mourn for her father, till she followed him [to the grave,] may God have mercy on them both!

  John Payne’s translation: detailed table of contents

  EL ASMAÏ AND THE THREE GIRLS OF BASSORA.

  The Khalif Haroun er Reshid was exceeding restless one night and rising from his bed, fared from chamber to chamber, but could not compose himself to sleep. As soon as it was day, he said, ‘Fetch me El Asmaï. So the eunuch went out and told the doorkeepers, who sent for the poet and when he came, informed the Khalif. The latter bade admit him and said to him, ‘O Asmaï, I wish thee to tell me the best thou hast heard of stories of women and their verses.’ ‘I hear and obey,’ answered El Asmaï. ‘I have heard great store of women’s verses; but none pleased me save three lines I once heard from three girls.’ ‘Tell me of them,’ said the Khalif. ‘Know then, O Commander of the Faithful,’ replied the poet, ‘that I once abode a year in Bassora, and one day, as I was walking about, the heat was sore upon me and I sought for a place where I might take the noonday rest, but found none. Presently, however, I came upon a porch swept and watered, at the upper end whereof was an open lattice-window, whence exhaled a scent of musk and thereunder a wooden bench. I entered the porch, and lying down on the bench, would have slept, when, behold, I heard from within a girl’s sweet voice talking and saying, “O my sisters, we are sat here to spend this day in each other’s company; so come, let us each put down a hundred dinars and recite a line of verse; and whoso recites the goodliest and sweetest line, the three hundred dinars shall be hers.” “With all our hearts,” said the others; and the eldest recited the following verse:

  By Allah, I should delight in him, if in dreams to my couch came he! But, an he visited me on wake, ’twould yet more marvellous be.

  Quoth the second:

  Only his image, in very deed, in slumber visited me; And ‘Welcome!’ straightway I said to him, ‘a welcome fair and free!’

  Then said the youngest:

  With my soul and my folk I will ransom him, whom my bedfellow still I see Each night and whose scent is pleasanter than the scent of musk to me!”

  Quoth I, “If [the speaker] have beauty after the measure [of the goodliness] of this [her speech] the thing is every way complete.” Then I rose and was about to go away, when the door opened and out came a slave-girl, who said to me, “Sit, O elder.” So I sat down again, and she gave me a scroll, wherein was written, in characters of the utmost beauty, with straight Alifs, big-bellied Has and rounded Waws, the following: “We would have the Sheikh (whose days God prolong) to know that we are three maidens, sisters, sitting in friendly converse, who have laid down each a hundred dinars, on condition that whoso recites the best and most agreeable line of verse shall have the whole three hundred dinars; and we appoint thee judge between us: so decide as thou seest best, and peace be on thee!” Quoth I to the girl, “Bring me inkhorn and paper.” So she went in and returning after a little, brought me a silvered inkhorn and gilded pens, with which I wrote the following verses:

  I’ve heard of young beauties once that sat in converse frank and free And talked the talk of a man who’s seen and proved all things that be;

  Three like the dawnings of new-born day, they ravished every heart; Yea, tormentful to the yearner’s soul were they, these maidens three.

  They’d cloistered them, where no vision lewd their modesty might affront; The eyes of the spy were shut in sleep and none was there to see.

  So they discovered the secret thoughts in their breasts that hidden lay And then to making of verse they fell, for pastime, in their glee.

  Quoth one of them thus, — a loveling rare, fulfilled of amorous grace, Her teeth for the sweet of her speech did smile at every word spake she, —

  “By Allah, I should delight in him, if in dreams to my couch came he! But, an he visited me on wake, ’twould yet more marvellous be.”

  And when she had ended that which she gilt with smiles, the second sighed And warbled these words with a trilling note, like a bird upon a tree:

  “Only his image, in very deed, in slumber visited me, And, “Welcome,” straightway quoth I to him, “a welcome fair and free!”

  But the third did better than th’ other twain, for, answering, thus said she, With a word of her own that was sweeter still and goodlier, perdie,

  “With my soul and my folk I will ransom him, whom my bedfellow still I see Each night and whose scent is pleasanter than the scent of musk to me!”

  So, when I considered that which they said and sentence passed thereon, I judged not so as to give the wits a cause for mockery;

  Nay, judgment I gave for the youngest maid and deemed her verse the best, For that I judged the words she spake e’en nearest the truth to be.

  Then I gave the scroll to the girl, who went in with it, and presently I heard a noise of dancing and clapping of hands and tumult. Quoth I to myself, “It is time for me to go.” So I rose from the bench and was about to go away, when the damsel cried out to me, saying, “Sit down, O Asmaï!” “Who gave thee to know that I was El Asmaï?” asked I, and she, “If thy name be unknown to us, thy poetry is not.” So I sat down again and behold, the door opened and out came the first damsel, with a dish of fruits and another of sweetmeats. I ate of both and praised their fashion and would have gone away; but she cried out, saying, “Sit down, O Asmaï!” Wherewith I raised my eyes to her and saw a rosy palm in a saffron sleeve, meseemed it was the full moon breaking out from under the clouds. Then she threw me a purse containing three hundred dinars and said to me, “This is mine and I give it to thee in requital of thy judgment.”

  Quoth the Khalif, ‘Why didst thou decide for the youngest?’ ‘O Commander of the Faithful, whose life God prolong,’ answered El Asmaï, ‘the eldest said, “I should delight in him, if he visited my couch in sleep.” Now this is
restricted and dependent upon a condition, that may befall or may not befall; whilst, for the second, an image of dreams came to her in sleep, and she saluted it; but the youngest said that she actually lay with her lover and smelt his breath sweeter than musk and she engaged her soul and her folk for him, which she had not done, were he not dearer to her than her soul.’ ‘Thou didst well, O Asmaï,’ said the Khalif and gave him other three hundred dinars, in payment of his story.

  John Payne’s translation: detailed table of contents

  IBRAHIM OF MOSUL AND THE DEVIL.

  (Quoth Abou Ishac Ibrahim el Mausili), I asked Er Reshid once to give me a day’s leave that I might be private with the people of my household and my friends, and he gave me leave for Saturday. So I went home and betook myself to making ready meat and drink and other necessaries and bade the doorkeepers shut the doors and let none come in to me. However, presently, as I sat in my sitting-chamber, with my women about me, I was ware of an old man of comely and reverend aspect, clad in white clothes and a shirt of fine stuff, with a doctor’s hood on his head and a silver-handled staff in his hand, and the house and porch were full of the sweet smell of the essences with which he was scented. I was greatly vexed at his coming in to me and thought to turn away the doorkeepers; but he saluted me after the goodliest fashion and I returned his greeting and bade him be seated. So he sat down and entertained me with stories of the Arabs and their verses, till my anger left me and methought my servants had sought to pleasure me by admitting a man of such good breeding and elegant culture.

  Then said I to him, ‘Art thou for meat?’ ‘I have no need of it,’ answered he. ‘And for drink?’ asked I. ‘That is as thou wilt,’ said he. So I drank off a pint of wine and poured him out the like. Then said he, ‘O Abou Ishac, wilt thou sing us somewhat, so we may hear of thy fashion that wherein thou excellest high and low?’ His words vexed me; but I dissembled my annoyance and taking the lute, played and sang. ‘Well done, O Abou Ishac!’ said he; whereat my anger redoubled and I said to myself, ‘Is it not enough that he should come in to me, without my leave, and importune me thus, but he must call me by my name, as though he knew not the right way to address me?’ Quoth he, ‘If thou wilt sing again, we will requite thee.’ I swallowed my annoyance and took the lute and sang again, taking pains with what I sang and rising thereto altogether, because of his saying, ‘We will requite thee.’ He was delighted and said, ‘Well done, O my lord!’ Then said he, ‘Dost thou give me leave to sing?’ ‘As thou wilt,’ answered I, deeming him weak of wit, in that he should think to sing before me, after that which he had heard from me. So he took the lute and swept the strings, and by Allah, meseemed they spoke in the Arabic tongue, with a sweet and liquid and murmurous voice; then he began and sang the following verses:

  A heart that is cankered with grief I have: who will sell me therefor A heart that of cankers is whole, unwounded of ulcer or sore?

  But no, not a soul will consent to barter a heart against mine; For whoso should buy were condemned to sickness and woe evermore.

  He’d groan with the groaning of him who’s wounded and choking with wine, For the longing that lives in my heart and gnaws at its innermost core.

  And by Allah, meseemed the doors and the walls and all that was in the house answered and sang with him, for the beauty of his voice, so that methought my very limbs and clothes answered him, and I abode amazed and unable to speak or move, for the trouble of my heart. Then he sang these verses:

  Hark ye, O doves of Liwa, come back unto your nest: With longing for your voices my bosom is opprest.

  Back to the copse they winged it and me well-nigh did slay; Well-nigh to them my secrets I had made manifest.

  They call on one departed, with cooing, as it were They’d drunken wine and madness did sojourn in their breast.

  Ne’er saw mine eyes, I swear it, the like of them for doves! They weep: yet not a tear-drop is from their eyes exprest.

  And also these:

  O wind of Nejed, when thou blowst from Nejed far and wide, Thy wafts add longing unto that for which long time I’ve sighed!

  Lo, in the freshness of the morn, from out the trellised boughs Of laurel and of cassia, to me a turtle cried.

  She moaned, as moans the youth for love, and eke discovered thus The secret of my yearning pain, that yet I fain would hide.

  They say that, when a lover’s near, he wearies of his love, And that by absence passion’s cured; ’tis false, for I have tried

  Both remedies, but am not cured of that which is with me, Withal that nearness easier is than distance to abide.

  Yet nearness of abode, forsooth, may nowise profit thee, An if the grace of her thou lov’st be unto thee denied.

  Then said he, ‘O Ibrahim, sing this song after me and do after the fashion thereof in thy singing and teach it to thy slave-girls.’ Quoth I, ‘Repeat it to me.’ But he answered, ‘There needs no repetition; thou hast it by heart,’ and vanished from my sight. At this I was amazed and running to my sword, drew it and made for the door of the harem, but found it closed and said to the women, ‘What have ye heard?’ Quoth they, ‘We have heard the sweetest and goodliest of singing.’ Then I went forth, in amazement, to the door of the house and finding it locked, questioned the doorkeepers of the old man. ‘What old man?’ said they. ‘By Allah, no one hath gone in to thee this day!’ So I returned, pondering the matter, when, behold, he cried out from one of the corners of the house, [though I saw none,] saying, ‘Fear not, O Abou Ishac; no harm shall befall thee. It is I, Abou Murreh, who have been thy boon-companion this day.’ Then I mounted and rode to Er Reshid, to whom I told what had passed, and he said, ‘Repeat to me the airs thou heardest from him.’ So I took the lute and played and sang them to him; for, behold, they were rooted in my heart. The Khalif was charmed with them and drank thereto, albeit he was no great wine-bibber, saying, ‘Would he would some day pleasure us with his company, as he hath pleasured thee!’ Then he ordered me a present and I took it and went away.

  John Payne’s translation: detailed table of contents

  THE LOVERS OF THE BENOU UDHREH.

  (Quoth Mesrour the Eunuch), The Khalif Haroun er Reshid was very wakeful one night and said to me, ‘See which of the poets is at the door to-night.’ So I went out and finding Jemil ben Maamer el Udhri in the ante-chamber, said to him, ‘The Commander of the Faithful calls for thee.’ Quoth he, ‘I hear and obey,’ and going in with me, saluted the Khalif, who returned his greeting and bade him sit down. Then he said to him, ‘O Jemil, hast thou any new stories to tell us?’ ‘Yes, O Commander of the Faithful,’ answered he. ‘Whether wouldst thou liefer hear, that which I have seen with mine eyes or that which I have [but] heard tell?’ ‘Tell me something thou hast actually seen,’ said the Khalif. Quoth Jemil, ‘It is well, O Commander of the Faithful; incline thy heart to me and lend me thine ears.’ The Khalif took a cushion of red brocade, embroidered with gold and stuffed with ostrich-feathers, and laying it under his thighs, propped up his elbows thereon; then he said to Jemil, ‘Now for thy tale, O Jemil!’

  ‘Know, O Commander of the Faithful,’ answered he, ‘that I was once desperately enamoured of a certain girl and used to pay her frequent visits, for that she was my desire and delight of all the things of this world. After awhile, her people removed with her, by reason of scarcity of pasture, and I abode some time without seeing her, till I grew restless for desire and longed for her sight and my soul urged me to journey to her. One night, I could hold out no longer; so I rose and saddling my she-camel, bound on my turban and donned my oldest clothes. Then I girt myself with my sword and slinging my spear behind me, mounted and rode forth in quest of her. I fared on diligently till, one night, it was pitch dark and exceeding black and I heard on all sides the roaring of lions and howling of wolves and the cries of the wild beasts; whereat my reason was troubled and my heart sank within me; but for all that I ceased not to press on, descending into valleys and climbing mountains, whilst my tongue ceased not to call
on the name of God the Most High.

  As I went along thus, sleep overtook me and the camel carried me aside out of my road, till, presently, something smote me on the head, and I woke, startled and alarmed, and found myself in a meadow, full of interlacing trees and streams and birds on the branches, warbling their various notes. So I alighted and taking my camel’s halter in my hand, fared on softly with her, till I won clear of the trees and came out into the open country, where I adjusted her saddle and mounted again, knowing not where to go nor whither the fates should lead me; but, presently, peering into the desert, I espied a fire afar off. So I smote my camel and made toward the fire. When I drew near, I saw a tent pitched and thereby a spear stuck in the ground, with a pennon flying and horses tethered and camels feeding, and said in myself, “Doubtless there hangs some grave matter by this tent, for I see none other than it in the desert.” So I went up to it and said, “Peace be upon you, O people of the tent, and the mercy of God and His blessings!” Whereupon there came forth to me a young man, nineteen years old, who was as the shining full moon, with valour written between his eyes, and answered, saying, “And on thee be peace, O brother of the Arabs, and God’s mercy and blessing! Methinks thou hast lost thy way?” “Even so,” replied I. “Direct me aright, God have mercy on thee!” “O brother of the Arabs,” rejoined he, “of a truth this our land is infested with lions and the night is exceeding dark and cold and dreary, and I fear lest the wild beasts tear thee in pieces; wherefore do thou alight and abide with me this night in ease and comfort, and to-morrow I will put thee in the right way.”

  Accordingly, I alighted and hobbled my camel with the end of her halter; 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 fine salt and powdered spices, fell to cutting off pieces of the flesh of the sheep and roasting them over the fire and feeding me therewith, weeping one while and sighing another. Then he groaned heavily and wept sore and recited the following verses: