The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights: Volume 1
Page 66
I looked up to see where it had come from. My gaze then fell on that of the gazelle lady, who was looking out of a window with a lattice of brass. I had never seen anyone more beautiful; indeed, my tongue cannot describe her. When she saw me looking at her, she put one finger in her mouth, and then, joining her middle finger to her index finger, she placed them on her bosom between her breasts. She then withdrew her head from the window, closing it and disappearing from sight. Fire broke out in my heart; the flames spread; my one glance was followed by a thousand regrets, and I was bewildered. I had not been able to hear anything she said, nor had I understood her gestures. I looked at the window again, but found it closed, and although I waited until sunset, I heard no sound and saw no one. Despairing of catching sight of her again, I got up from my place, taking the kerchief with me and unfolding it. The scent of musk spread from it, so delighting me that I imagined myself to be in Paradise.
As I spread it out between my fingers, a small piece of paper fell from it. I opened this up and found that it was impregnated with the purest of scents, while on it were written these lines:
I sent him a note complaining of my love,
Written in a delicate hand – and scripts are of all kinds.
My friend said: ‘Why do you write like this,
So delicately and finely that it is hardly to be seen?’
I said: ‘That is because I am worn away and thin;
This is what happens to the script of lovers.’
After reading these lines, I studied the beautiful kerchief and saw the following lines on one of its borders:
Down, that excellent calligrapher,
Wrote two lines on his cheek in ornamental script.
When he appears, the sun and moon become confused,
And when he bends, branches are put to shame.
On the opposite border were these lines:
Down wrote with ambergris upon a pearl
Two lines of jet inscribed upon an apple.
There is death in the glance of languorous eyes
And drunkenness in cheeks, not in the wine.
When I saw the verses that were embroidered on the kerchief, fire spread through my heart and my longings and cares increased. I took the kerchief and the note and brought them back home, not knowing how to reach my beloved or how to particularize the generalities of love. Some of the night had already passed before I reached the house, and there I saw my cousin ‘Aziza sitting weeping. When she saw me, she wiped away her tears; coming up to me, she took off my robe and asked me why I had been absent. All the emirs, she told me, together with the great men, the merchants and others, had assembled in the house. The qadis and the notaries had been there; they had eaten all the food and stayed sitting for a time, waiting for me to come for the signing of the contract. ‘When finally they gave up hope of you,’ she went on, ‘they dispersed and each went his way. Your father was furious at that and swore that he would not draw up the marriage contract until next year, because of all the money that he had spent on the wedding feast.’
She then asked again what had happened to make me so late and to cause all this trouble by my absence. ‘Cousin,’ I said to her, ‘don’t ask what happened to me,’ but then I told her about the kerchief and explained things from start to finish. She took the paper and the kerchief and read what was written on them, with tears running down her cheeks. She then recited these lines:
If someone says: ‘Love starts with choice,’ tell them:
‘That is a lie; it all comes from necessity.’
Necessity is not followed by shame,
A point whose truth is shown by histories.
Sound currency cannot be falsified.
Call love sweet torture if you wish,
A throbbing in the entrails, or a blow,
A blessing, a misfortune or a goal
In which the soul finds pleasure or is lost.
Backwards or forwards – I do not know how love is to be read.
In spite of that, the days of love are feasts,
And the beloved’s mouth smiles all the while.
Her spreading fragrance is a festival,
And her love cuts off all that brings disgrace,
Never alighting in the heart of a base man.
She then asked me: ‘What did she say to you and what gestures did she make at you?’ ‘She didn’t speak at all,’ I replied, ‘but she put her finger in her mouth, and she then put it together with her middle finger and laid both of them on her breast, pointing downwards. Then she withdrew her head and shut the window, after which I didn’t see her again. She took my heart away with her and I sat until sunset, waiting for her to look out of the window a second time, but she didn’t, and when I had despaired of seeing her, I got up from where I was sitting and came home. This is my story, and I wish that you would help me in my misfortune.’
My cousin lifted her head towards me and said: ‘If you asked for my eye, cousin, I would pull it out from my eyelids for you, and I shall have to help you get what you want, as well as helping her, for she is as deeply in love with you as you are with her.’ I asked what her gestures had meant, and my cousin told me: ‘When she put her finger in her mouth, this was to show that you are like the soul in her body and that she would hold on to your union with her teeth. The kerchief is the sign of the lover’s greeting to the beloved; the note signifies that her soul is attached to you; and when she put two fingers on her bosom between her breasts, she meant to tell you to come back after two days so as to relieve her distress. You must know, cousin, that she is in love with you and that she trusts you. This is the interpretation that I put on these signs, and were I able to come and go, it would not take me long to bring you together and shelter the two of you under my wing.’
When I heard what she said, I thanked her and I said to myself that I would wait for two days. So I spent the days sitting at home, neither going out nor coming in and neither eating nor drinking. I put my head in my cousin’s lap and she kept consoling me and telling me to be determined, resolute and of good heart.
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the one hundred and fourteenth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that THE YOUNG MAN TOLD TAJ AL-MULUK:
At the end of the two days, my cousin said to me: ‘Be cheerful and joyful; strengthen your resolution; put on your clothes and set off for your rendezvous with her.’ She then got up, brought me a change of clothing and perfumed me. I summoned up my strength, took heart and went out. I then walked on until I entered the lane, where I sat down on the bench for a time. Suddenly the window opened and I looked at the lady, but when I saw her I fell down in a faint. Then I recovered, summoned my resolve and took heart once more, but when I looked at her a second time, I lost consciousness again. When I came to myself, I saw that she had with her a mirror and a red kerchief. When she saw me, she uncovered her forearms, spread open her five fingers and struck her breast with the palm of her hand and her five fingers. Next, she raised her hands and put the mirror outside the window. She took the kerchief, went inside with it, and then, coming back again, she lowered it from the window in the direction of the lane. She did this three times, letting it down and raising it, after which she squeezed it and then folded it in her hand. She bowed her head and then drew it back from the window, which she shut. She went away without having said a single word to me, leaving me bemused, as I had no idea what her gestures meant.
I stayed sitting there until evening and it was almost midnight by the time I got home. There I found my cousin with her hand on her cheek and tears pouring from her eyes. She was reciting these lines:
Why should I harshly be abused for loving you?
How can I forget you, you the slender branch?
A beautiful face has ravished my heart and turned away –
I cannot escape my hopeless love for her.
With her Turkish glances she wounds my inner hea
rt
More deeply than any polished and sharpened sword.
You have burdened me with a weight of passion,
While I am too weak to bear that of my shirt.
I shed tears of blood when those who blame me say:
‘A sharp sword from your beloved’s eyelids brings you fear.’
I wish my heart might be as hard as yours;
My withered body is as slender as your waist.
You lord it over me; your beauty is a steward
Treating me harshly, an unjust chamberlain.
To say all beauty was in Joseph is a lie.
How many Josephs are there in your loveliness!
I try to turn away from you, in fear
Of watching eyes. How difficult this is!
When I heard these lines, my cares and sorrows increased and multiplied, and I collapsed in a corner of the room. My cousin got up to come to me. She lifted me up, took off my robe and wiped my face with her sleeve. She then asked me what had happened and I told her everything that the lady had done. ‘Cousin,’ she said, ‘the gesture that she made with the palm of her hand and her five fingers means: “Come again after five days.” As for the mirror, the lowering and raising of the red kerchief and the fact that she put her head out of the window, this means: “Sit in the dyer’s shop until my messenger comes to you.” ’ When I heard what she said, fire blazed in my heart and I said: ‘By God, cousin, your interpretation of this is right, as I saw a Jewish dyer in the lane.’ Then I wept and my cousin said: ‘Be resolute and firm. Others are obsessed with love for years and endure the heat of its passion with constancy, while you have only a week to wait, so why are you so impatient?’
She set about consoling me and she brought me food, but although I took a morsel and tried to eat it, I failed, and I then neither ate nor drank nor enjoyed the pleasures of sleep. My complexion turned pale and I lost my good looks, as I had never been in love before or experienced love’s heat. I became weak and so did my cousin because of me. Every night until I went to sleep she would try to console me by telling me stories of lovers, and whenever I woke up, I would find her still awake thanks to me, with tears running down her cheeks. Things went on like that for me until the five days had passed. Then my cousin got up, heated water for me and bathed me, after which she dressed me in my clothes. ‘Go to her,’ she said, ‘and may God fulfil your need and allow you to get what you want from your beloved.’
I left and walked on until I got to the head of the lane. It was a Saturday and I saw that the dyer’s shop was shut. I sat by it until the call for the afternoon prayer; then the sun grew pale and the muezzins called for the evening prayer. Night fell, but I could learn nothing of my lady and I heard nothing from her or of her. I became afraid for myself as I sat there alone, and so I got up, staggering like a drunken man until I got home. When I went in, I saw my cousin ‘Aziza, standing alone with one hand on a peg that had been driven into the wall and another on her breast. She was reciting, with deep sighs, the lines:
The passion of the Arab girl, whose clan have gone,
Who longs for the ban tree and the sweet bay of Hijaz –
When she entertains the riders, her yearning serves
For their guest fire and her tears for their water –
This passion is no more than what I feel
For my beloved, who thinks my love a fault.
When she had finished her poem, she turned and caught sight of me. She then wiped away her tears and mine with her sleeves and said, smiling at me: ‘May God grant you enjoyment of His gifts, cousin. Why did you not spend the night with your beloved and get what you wanted from her?’ On hearing this, I kicked her in the chest and she fell, striking her forehead on the edge of the raised floor of the room. There was a peg there and it was this that struck her forehead, and when I looked at it, I saw that the skin had been cut open and the blood was flowing.
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the one hundred and fifteenth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that THE YOUNG MAN TOLD TAJ AL-MULUK:
I kicked my cousin in the chest and she fell, striking her forehead on a peg at the edge of the raised floor of the room. The skin was cut open and the blood flowed. She remained silent, not saying a single word, then, getting up immediately, she burned some rags, applying the ash to the wound, which she bandaged. She wiped away the blood that had fallen on to the carpet, and it was as though all this had never happened. Then she came up to me, smiled at me and said softly: ‘By God, cousin, I didn’t say this to mock you or her, but I was distracted by a headache and I was thinking of having some blood let. Now my head and my forehead feel better and so tell me what happened to you today.’ I told her the whole story and then burst into tears. ‘There is good news for you, cousin,’ she said, ‘that you will succeed in your quest and achieve what you hope for, as this is a sign of acceptance. She stayed away from you because she wants to test you and to find out whether you can show patience or not, and whether you are really in love with her or not. Go to her tomorrow, to the place where you were to start with, and see what signs she makes to you, for joy is close at hand and your sorrows are nearly over.’
She started to console me for my disappointment, but my cares and sorrows increased. Then she brought me food, but I kicked out, knocking over all the bowls, and I said: ‘Every lover is mad. He has no taste for food and no enjoyment of sleep.’ ‘Aziza said: ‘By God, cousin, these are the signs of love.’ She was weeping as she picked up the broken bits of the bowls and cleaned away the food. Then she sat talking to me throughout the night, while I was praying for dawn.
When morning came and the light spread, I set off to go to the lady and quickly got to the lane, where I sat down on the bench. Suddenly the window opened and she put her head out, laughing. She then disappeared but later came back with a mirror, a bag and a pot filled with green shoots. In her hand she was carrying a lamp, and the first thing she did was to take the mirror in her hand and put it in the bag, which she then tied shut and threw into the house. She let down her hair over her face and placed the lamp for a moment on top of the plants. Then, gathering up everything, she took it away and closed the window. My heart was broken by this, by the secret gestures and cryptic signs and by the fact that she had not spoken a single word to me, but as a result, the ardour of my passionate love intensified and grew stronger.
I retraced my steps, weeping and sorrowful at heart, until I got back home, where I saw my cousin seated with her face turned to the wall. Her heart was consumed by care, sorrow and jealousy, but her love kept her from telling me anything about the passion that she felt because she could see the extent of my own infatuation. When I looked at her, I saw that she was wearing two bandages, one because of the blow to her forehead and the other over her eyes because of the pain caused by the violence of her weeping. She was in the worst of states, shedding tears and reciting:
I count the nights, one night after another,
But for long I lived without counting them.
I tell you, my companions, that I do not have
What God decreed for Laila and for me.
Destiny gave her to another, afflicting me with her love.
Why did it not send me some other grief?
When she had finished these lines, she looked up and saw me through her tears. Wiping them away, she came up to me, but the extent of her emotion was such that she could not speak. After staying silent for some time, she asked me to tell her what had happened to me this time with the lady. I gave her a full account and she said: ‘Show patience, for the time of your union is at hand and you will get what you are hoping for. When she gestured to you with the mirror and put it in the bag, she was telling you to wait till sunset. When she loosed her hair over her face, she was saying: “When night arrives and the fall of darkness overcomes the daylight, come.” The plant pot was meant to tell you that when you do, you are
to enter the garden behind the lane, and by using the lamp she was telling you that when you walk into the garden, make for the place where you see a lighted lamp, sit beneath it and wait for her, for your love is killing her.’
On hearing what my cousin had to say, I shouted out because of the vehemence of my passion and said: ‘How many promises do you make me, yet when I go to her, I never get what I was hoping for? I don’t think that your interpretations are right.’ My cousin laughed and said: ‘You only have to show patience for the rest of this day until it ends and night falls. Then you will obtain union and reach the goal of your hopes. This is true and not a lie.’ Then she recited:
Allow the days to pass away;
Do not enter the house of care.
The goal of many a difficult quest
Is brought near by the hour of joy.
She then came up to me and started to console me with soft words, although she did not dare to bring me any food, for fear I might be angry with her. Hoping for my affection, all she did was to come to me and take off my robe, after which she said: ‘Sit down, cousin, so that I can tell you stories to distract you until the day’s end, for, if God Almighty wills it, when night falls you will be with your beloved.’ I paid no attention to her but set about waiting for the coming of night, exclaiming: ‘Oh my Lord, make night come soon!’
When it did come, my cousin wept bitterly. She gave me a globule of pure musk, saying ‘Cousin, put this in your mouth, and when you have met your beloved and have had your way with her, after she has granted you what you wanted, recite these lines to her:
Lovers, by God, tell me:
What is the desperate one of you to do?’
She then kissed me and made me swear that I would not recite these lines until I was on the point of leaving the lady. I agreed to this and went out in the evening, walking on and on until I came to the garden. I found the gate open, and when I went in I could see a light in the distance. When I got there I found a large garden room vaulted over with a dome of ivory and ebony, in the middle of which hung a lamp. The room was furnished with silk carpets, embroidered with gold and silver, while in a golden candelabrum hanging beneath the lamp was a huge lighted candle. In the middle of the room was a fountain adorned with various carved figures and beside it was a table with a silken covering, flanked by a large china jug filled with wine, together with a crystal goblet ornamented with gold. Beside all this was a large silver bowl and when I removed its cover, I found that it contained fruits of all kinds – figs, pomegranates, grapes, oranges and various sorts of citrus fruit. Among these were sweet-smelling flowers, including roses, jasmine, myrtle, eglantine, narcissus and various scented herbs.