One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  Richard Francis Burton’s translation: detailed table of contents

  The Fourth Night of the Month.

  When the evening evened, the king sat private in his sitting-chamber and bade fetch the Wazir. When he presented himself before him, he said to him, “Tell me the tale of the Richard.” The Minister replied, “I will. Hear, O puissant king,

  The Tale of the Richard who Married his Beautiful Daughter to the Poor Old Man.

  A certain rich merchant had a beautiful daughter, who was as the full moon, and when she attained the age of fifteen, her father betook himself to an old man and spreading him a carpet in his sitting-chamber, gave him to eat and conversed and caroused with him. Then said he to him, “I desire to marry thee to my daughter.” The other drew back, because of his poverty, and said to him, “I am no husband for her nor am I a match for thee.” The merchant was urgent with him, but he repeated his answer to him, saying, “I will not consent to this till thou acquaint me with the cause of thy desire for me. An I find it reasonable, I will fall in with thy wish; and if not, I will not do this ever.” Quoth the merchant, “Thou must know that I am a man from the land of China and was in my youth well-favoured and well-to-do. Now I made no account of womankind, one and all, but followed after youths,347 and one night I saw, in a dream, as it were a balance set up, and hard by it a voice said, ‘This is the portion of Such-an-one.’ I listened and presently I heard my own name; so I looked and behold, there stood a woman loathly to the uttermost; whereupon I awoke in fear and cried, ‘I will never marry, lest haply this fulsome female fall to my lot.’ Then I set out for this city with merchandise and the journey was pleasant to me and the sojourn here, so that I took up my abode in the place for a length of time and gat me friends and factors. At last I sold all my stock-in-trade and collected its price and there was left me nothing to occupy me till the folk348 should depart and I depart with them. One day, I changed my clothes and putting gold into my sleeve, sallied forth to inspect the holes and corners of this city, and as I was wandering about, I saw a handsome house: its seemliness pleased me; so I stood looking on it and beheld a lovely woman at the window. When she saw me, she made haste and descended, whilst I abode confounded. Then I betook myself to a tailor there and questioned him of the house and anent whose it was. Quoth he, ‘It belongeth to Such-an-one the Notary,349 God damn him!’ I asked, ‘Is he her sire?’ and he answered, ‘Yes.’ So I repaired in great hurry to a man, with whom I had been wont to deposit my goods for sale, and told him I desired to gain access to Such-an-one the Notary. Accordingly he assembled his friends and we betook ourselves to the Notary’s house. When we came in to him, we saluted him and sat with him, and I said to him, ‘I come to thee as a suitor, desiring in marriage the hand of thy daughter.’ He replied, ‘I have no daughter befitting this man;’ and I rejoined, ‘Allah aid thee! My desire is for thee and not for her.’350 But he still refused and his friends said to him, ‘This is an honourable match and a man thine equal, nor is it lawful to thee that thou hinder the young lady of her good luck.’ Quoth he to them, ‘She will not suit him!’ nevertheless they were instant with him till at last he said, ‘Verily, my daughter whom ye seek is passing ill-favoured and in her are all blamed qualities of person.’ And I said, ‘I accept her, though she be as thou sayest.’ Then said the folk, ‘Extolled be Allah! Cease we to talk of a thing settled; so say the word, how much wilt thou have to her marriagesettlement?’ Quoth he, ‘I must have four thousand sequins;’ and I said, ‘To hear is to obey!’ Accordingly the affair was concluded and we drew up the contract of marriage and I made the bride-feast; but on the wedding-night I beheld a thing351 than which never made Allah Almighty aught more fulsome. Methought her folk had devised this freak by way of fun; so I laughed and looked for my mistress, whom I had seen at the window, to make her appearance; but saw her not. When the affair was prolonged and I found none but her, I was like to lose my wits for vexation and fell to beseeching my Lord and humbling myself in supplication before Him that He would deliver me from her. When I arose in the morning, there came the chamberwoman and said to me, ‘Hast thou need of the bath?’352 I replied, ‘No;’ and she asked, ‘Art thou for breakfast?’ But I still answered ‘No;’ and on this wise I abode three days, tasting neither meat nor drink. When the young woman my wife saw me in this plight, she said to me, ‘O man, tell me thy tale, for, by Allah, if I may effect thy deliverance, I will assuredly further thee thereto.’ I gave ear to her speech and put faith in her sooth and acquainted her with the adventure of the damsel whom I had seen at the window and how 1 had fallen in love with her; whereupon quoth she, ‘An that girl belong to me, whatso I possess is thine, and if she belong to my sire, I will demand her of him and detain her from him and deliver her to thee.’ Then she fell to summoning hand-maid after hand-maid and showing them to me, till I saw the damsel whom I loved and said, ‘This is she.’ Quoth my wife, ‘Let not thy heart be troubled, for this is my slave-girl. My father gave her to me and I give her to thee:353 so comfort thyself and be of good cheer and of eyes cool and clear.’ Then, when it was night, she brought the girl to me, after she had adorned her and perfumed her, and said to her, ‘Cross not this thy lord in aught and every that he shall seek of thee.’ When she came to bed with me, I said in myself, ‘Verily, this my spouse is more generous than I!’ Then I sent away the slave-girl and drew not near her, but arose forthwith and betaking myself to my wife, lay with her and abated her maidenhead. She conceived by me at the first bout; and, accomplishing the time of her pregnancy, gave birth to this dear little daughter; in whom I rejoiced, for that she was beautiful exceedingly, and she hath inherited her mother’s sound sense and the comeliness of her sire. Indeed, many of the notables of the people have sought her of me in wedlock, but I would not wed her to any, because I saw in a dream, one night, that same balance set up and men and women being therein weighed, one against other, and meseemed I saw thee and her and the voice said to me, ‘This is such a man, the portion of such a woman.’354 Wherefore I knew that Almighty Allah had allotted her unto none other than thyself, and I choose rather to marry thee to her in my lifetime than that thou shouldst marry her after my death.” When the poor man heard the merchant’s story, he became desirous of wedding his daughter: so he took her to wife and was blessed of her with exceeding love. “Nor” (continued the Wazir), “is this story on any wise stranger or this tale rarer than that of the Sage and his three Sons.” When the king heard his Minister’s story, he was assured that he would not slay him and said, “I will have patience with him, so I may get of him the story of the Sage and his three Sons.” And he bade him depart to his own house.

  Richard Francis Burton’s translation: detailed table of contents

  The Fifth Night of the Month.

  When the evening evened, the king sat private in his chamber and summoning the Wazir, required of him the promised story. So Al-Rahwan said, “Hear, O king,

  Richard Francis Burton’s translation: detailed table of contents

  The Tale of the Sage and his Three Sons.355

  There was once a Sage of the sages, who had three sons and sons’ sons, and when they waxed many and their, seed multiplied, there befel dissension between them. So he assembled them and said to them, “Be ye single-handed against all others and despise not one another lest the folk despise you, and know that your case is the case of the man and the rope which he cut easily, when it was single; then he doubled it and could not cut it: on this wise is division and union.356 And beware lest ye seek help of others against your own selves or ye will fall into perdition, for by what means soever ye win your wish at his hand, his word will rank higher than your word. Now I have money which I will presently bury in a certain place, that it may be a store for you against the time of your need.” Then they left him and dispersed and one of the sons fell to spying upon his sire, so that he saw him hide the hoard outside the city. When he had made an end of burying it, the Sage returned to his house; and as soon as the morning m
orrowed, his son repaired to the place where he had seen his father bury the treasure and dug and took all the wealth he found and fared forth. When the old man felt that his death357 drew nigh, he called his sons to him and acquainted them with the place where he had hidden his hoard. As soon as he was dead, they went and dug up the treasure and came upon much wealth, for that the money, which the first son had taken singly and by stealth, was on the surface and he knew not that under it were other monies. So they carried it off and divided it and the first son claimed his share with the rest and added it to that which he had before taken, behind the backs of his father and his brethren. Then he married his cousin, the daughter of his father’s brother, and was blessed through her with a male-child, who was the goodliest of the folk of his time. When the boy grew up, his father feared for him poverty and decline of case, so he said to him, “Dear my son, know that during my green days I wronged my brothers in the matter of our father’s good, and I see thee in weal; but, an thou come to want, ask not one of them nor any other than they, for I have laid up for thee in yonder chamber a treasure; but do not thou open it until thou come to lack thy daily bread.” Then the man died, and his money, which was a great matter, fell to his son. The young man had not patience to wait till he had made an end of that which was with him, but rose and opened the chamber, and behold, it was empty and its walls were whitened, and in its midst was a rope hanging down as for a bucket and ten bricks, one upon other, and a scroll, wherein was written, “There is no help against death; so hang thyself and beg not of any, but kick away the bricks with thy toes, that there may be no escape for thy life, and thou shalt be at rest from the exultation of enemies and enviers and the bitterness of beggary.” Now when the youth saw this, he marvelled at that which his father had done and said, “This is an ill treasure.” Then he went forth and fell to eating and drinking with the folk, till naught was left him and he passed two days without tasting food, at the end of which time he took a handkerchief and selling it for two dirhams, bought bread and milk with the price and left it on the shelf and went out. Whilst he was gone, a dog came and seized the bread and polluted the milk, and when the young man returned and saw this, he beat his face, and fared forth distraught. Presently, he met a friend, to whom he discovered his case, and the other said to him, “Art thou not ashamed to talk thus? How hast thou wasted all this wealth and now comest telling lies and saying, The dog hath mounted on the shelf, and talking such nonsense?” And he reviled him. So the youth returned to his house, and verily the world had waxed black in his eyes and he cried, “My sire said sooth.” Then he opened the chamber door and piling up the bricks under his feet, put the rope about his neck and kicked away the bricks and swung himself off; whereupon the rope gave way with him and he fell to the ground and the ceiling clave asunder and there poured down on him a world of wealth. So he knew that his sire meant to chasten him by means of this and he invoked Allah’s mercy on him. Then he got him again that which he had sold of lands and houses and what not else and became once more in good case; his friends also returned to him and he entertained them for some time. Then said he to them one day “There was with us bread and the locusts ate it; so we set in its place a stone, one cubit long and the like broad, and the locusts came and nibbled away the stone, because of the smell of the bread.” Quoth one of his friends (and it was he who had given him the lie concerning the dog and the bread and milk), “Marvel not at this, for rats and mice do more than that.” Thereupon he said, “Get ye home! In the days of my poverty I was a liar when I told you of the dogs jumping upon the shelf and eating the bread and defiling the milk; and to-day, because I am rich again, I say sooth when I tell you that locusts devoured a stone one cubit long and one cubit broad.” They were abashed by his speech and departed from him; and the youth’s good prospered and his case was amended. “Nor” (continued the Wazir), “is this stranger or more seld-seen than the story of the Prince who fell in love with the picture.” Quoth the king, Shah Bakht, “Haply, an I hear this story, I shall gain wisdom from it: so I will not hasten in the slaying of this Minister, nor will I do him die before the thirty days have expired.” Then he gave him leave to withdraw, and he hied away to his own house.