The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights: Volume 1
Page 100
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the two hundred and thirteenth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that Qamar al-Zaman wept because of his separation from his wife and father. As he watched, he saw that the birds had dug a hole in which they proceeded to bury the corpse. They then flew away, but after some time they came back, bringing with them the killer, which they brought down to the grave. They settled down on top of it until they had killed it, after which they split open its stomach and pulled out its guts, with its blood pouring out over the dead bird’s grave. They scattered its flesh, tore its skin and strewed the contents of its stomach here and there in different places. Qamar al-Zaman was watching in astonishment as all this was going on. He happened to turn towards the place where the bird had been killed, where he noticed something glistening, and going up to it, he discovered the bird’s crop, which he took and opened. There, inside, he found the ring which had been the cause of his separation from his wife, and on seeing it and recognizing it, he fell to the ground, fainting with joy. On recovering, he exclaimed: ‘Praise be to God! This is a good sign, bringing joyful news that I shall be reunited with my beloved.’
He studied the ring closely, moving it to and fro in front of him, before fastening it to his forearm, thinking that it would bring him luck. He then walked on to wait for the gardener, but when night had fallen he had still not returned, and so Qamar al-Zaman spent the night in his own quarters. In the morning, he got up to go to work, tying a fibre rope around his waist and taking with him his axe and his basket. He made his way through the orchard until he came to a carob tree at whose root he struck with the axe. The blow made a ringing sound and, on clearing away the soil, he discovered a trapdoor, which he opened.
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the two hundred and fourteenth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that Qamar al-Zaman opened the trapdoor. Inside he found another door and a flight of steps, and after going down these, he discovered an old chamber, dating from the time of ‘Ad and Thamud, carved out of the rock, with sky-blue mouldings. Finding that it was full of glittering red gold, he said to himself: ‘This marks the end of toil and the start of joy and pleasure.’ After he had gone back up to the orchard, he replaced the trapdoor and then went on watering the trees until evening. At that point the gardener arrived, saying: ‘Good news, my son! You can go back to your own land. The merchants are ready to go and the ship will sail in three days’ time for the City of Ebony, which is the nearest of the Muslim cities, and when you get there, it is a six months’ journey by land to the Khalidan Islands where you will find King Shahriman.’
In his delight, Qamar al-Zaman recited:
Do not desert one who is not accustomed to desert you,
And do not torture the innocent by turning from him.
After so long a parting, another would forget you,
And his feelings would change, but mine do not.
Qamar al-Zaman then kissed the gardener’s hand, saying: ‘Father, as you have given me good news, so I too have great news for you.’ He then told him of the chamber that he had found and the delighted gardener said: ‘My son, I have been in this orchard for eighty years without finding anything, while you have been here with me for less than a year and have come across this. It is a blessing sent by God to end your misfortunes and to help you to get back to your people and to reunite you with those whom you love.’ Qamar al-Zaman insisted that the treasure must be shared and he took the gardener and brought him into the chamber, where he showed him the gold, which was stored in twenty jars. Of these he took ten and the gardener took ten. ‘My son,’ the gardener said, ‘fill some containers with the sparrow olives that are in this orchard, for they are not to be found in any other country and merchants export them everywhere. You can use them as a covering to mix with the gold, putting the gold in the containers with the olives on top of it. Then close them up and take them on board with you.’
Qamar al-Zaman went immediately and filled fifty containers, closing them up after he had put the gold in them underneath the olives. In one of them he put the ring, after which he and the gardener then sat talking. He was sure that he was going to be reunited with his family and he told himself that after he had reached the Ebony Islands he would go on to his father’s lands and ask about his beloved Budur. ‘It may be,’ he thought, ‘that she went back to her own country or travelled on to my father’s lands, unless some accident happened to her on the way.’ He then recited:
They left love in my heart and travelled off;
Those whom I love are now far distant from me.
The spring camps and their people are remote;
They live too far off to be visited.
They took my endurance with them as they went;
Both sleep and patience have deserted me.
My joy left me with their departure;
There is no rest at all for me to find.
By going, they drew tears down from my eyes,
And these flowed freely as they went away.
When I am filled with longing to see them,
While yearning and expectation both increase,
I conjure up their images, as in my heart
Passion is joined with longing and remembrance.
As Qamar al-Zaman sat waiting for the ship to sail, he told the gardener the story of what had happened to the birds. They slept that night, but next morning the gardener woke up sick. His illness continued for two days and on the third day it was so severe that his life was despaired of. Qamar al-Zaman was deeply saddened and it was while he was in this state that the captain came up with his sailors and asked for the gardener. When they were told that he was sick, they said: ‘Where is the young man who wants to go with us to the Ebony Islands?’ Qamar al-Zaman replied: ‘He is your servant who is standing before you.’ On his instructions, the containers were taken down to the ship and he was told to hurry as the wind was favourable. He agreed to this, then, after taking his provisions on board, he went back to say goodbye to the gardener. Finding him in his death throes, he sat by his head, closing his eyes when his soul left his body. After laying out his corpse, he buried him, entrusting him to the mercy of Almighty God, but then, when he went down to the ship, he found that it had set sail and put out to sea.
It sailed on until it was out of sight and Qamar al-Zaman remained in a state of perplexity and bewilderment, neither answering any questions put to him nor volunteering any remarks. He then went back to the orchard, care-ridden and gloomy, pouring dust on his head and slapping his face.
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the two hundred and fifteenth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that after the ship had sailed, Qamar al-Zaman went back to the orchard, care-ridden and gloomy. He rented the orchard from its owner and employed a man to help him water the trees, after which he went to the trapdoor and down into the chamber, where he packed the remainder of the gold into fifty containers, piling up olives on top of it. When he then asked about the ship, he was told that it sailed only once a year, which added to his anxiety. He was distressed by what had happened, and in particular by the loss of Princess Budur’s ring, as result of which he spent his nights and days in tears, reciting poetry.
So much for him, but as for the ship, a fair wind took it to the Ebony Islands, where, as fate had decreed, Princess Budur was seated at a window overlooking the sea. She saw the ship, which had anchored off the coast, and, with a palpitating heart, accompanied by her emirs, chamberlains and deputies, she rode down to the shore and halted beside the ship, whose cargo was being lifted out and shifted to the warehouses. The captain was brought to her, and when she asked what he had brought with him, he told her: ‘Your majesty, I have aromatics, cosmetics, medicinal powders, oils
and ointments, together with goods, costly wares, splendid fabrics and more Yemeni mats than camels or mules could carry. There are also perfumes, spices, aloes wood, tamarinds and sparrow olives such as are rarely to be found in these lands.’ When Budur heard him mention the olives, she felt a craving for them and she asked the captain what quantity he had with him. ‘Fifty containers full,’ the captain replied, ‘and as their owner is not here with us, the king can take as many as he wants of them.’ ‘Bring them ashore for me to look at them,’ Budur told him. The captain then shouted to his men, who brought up the fifty containers. Budur opened one, saw the olives and said: ‘I’ll take all fifty and pay you whatever their price may be.’ ‘In our country, they are valueless,’ the captain said. ‘The poor man who had them loaded on board was too late to sail with us.’ ‘How much are they worth here?’ asked Budur, and when the captain quoted a thousand dirhams, she agreed to pay the price and had them carried to the palace.
That evening, she had one of the containers brought to her when she was alone in her room with Hayat al-Nufus. She put a dish down in front of her and emptied out the container on to it. When a pile of red gold fell into the plate, she exclaimed to Hayat al-Nufus: ‘This is gold!’ She then had the other containers fetched and, on investigating them, she found that they were all full of gold, with not as many olives as would fill a single one of them. Then, rummaging through the gold, she discovered a ring in among it and, on taking this and looking at it, she found it to be the very one that had been fastened to the waistband of her drawers and which Qamar al-Zaman had taken. When she had made sure of this, she gave a cry of joy and then fell down in a faint.
Morning now dawned and Shahrazad broke off from what she had been allowed to say. Then, when it was the two hundred and sixteenth night, SHE CONTINUED:
I have heard, O fortunate king, that when Budur saw the ring, she gave a cry of joy and fell down in a faint. On recovering, she said to herself: ‘This ring was the cause of my parting from my beloved Qamar al-Zaman, but now it brings good news,’ and she told Hayat al-Nufus that its presence was a sign of a joyful reunion.
The next morning, she took her seat on the royal throne and had the ship’s captain brought to her. When he arrived, he kissed the ground in front of her and she then asked him where he had left the owner of the olives. ‘King of the age,’ he replied, ‘we left him in the land of the Magians, where he looks after an orchard.’ ‘Bring him to me,’ she said, ‘or else you and your ship will suffer incalculable harm.’ She had the merchants’ warehouses sealed up and she told them: ‘The owner of these olives owes me a debt and if you don’t bring him to me, I shall kill you all and seize your goods as plunder.’ The merchants approached the captain, promising to pay for the hire of his ship if he made a second voyage and imploring him to save them from such an unjust tyrant.
The captain re-embarked and set sail; God granted him a safe passage to the island, which he reached at night, and he then went up to the orchard. Here Qamar al-Zaman was finding that the night passed slowly; thinking of his beloved, he sat weeping over what had happened to him and, recalling Budur, he recited these lines:
There is many a night whose stars refuse to move
And which has not the power to go.
For one who watches in it for the dawn,
It seems as long as Judgement Day.
The captain knocked on Qamar al-Zaman’s door, and when he opened it and came out, the sailors carried him off to the ship. They then cast off and sailed on, day and night. When Qamar al-Zaman, not knowing the reason for this, asked them about it, they replied: ‘You are wanted by the lord of the Ebony Islands, the son-in-law of King Armanus, whose money you stole, you ill-fated fellow.’ ‘By God,’ he said, ‘I have never in my life been in that country and I know nothing about it.’
They sailed on to the islands and brought him to Princess Budur, who recognized him as soon as she saw him. She ordered him to be left with the eunuchs, who were to take him to the baths, and she then released the merchants and gave the captain a robe of honour worth ten thousand dinars. When she went to the palace that night, she told Hayat al-Nufus what had happened and said: ‘Keep this a secret until I get what I want and do something that will be written down and recited after we are dead, to kings and their subjects alike.’
Meanwhile, on her orders, Qamar al-Zaman had been taken to the baths and then clothed in royal robes. When he came out, he was like a branch of the ban tree or a star whose rising put the sun and moon to shame. He had recovered his spirits and, on entering the palace, he went to Budur. When she saw him, she forced herself to wait in patience until she had done what she wanted. She treated him with favour, giving him mamluks and eunuchs, camels and mules, together with a large sum of money. She continued to promote him from one grade to the next until she made him treasurer, giving him control of the revenues. She treated him as a close associate, and all the emirs, having been told of his status, were well disposed towards him. Every day, Princess Budur would increase his emoluments, while he himself could not understand why it was that she showed him such honour. The extent of his wealth allowed him to make generous gifts, and because of his services, King Armanus grew fond of him, as did the emirs and the people, both high and low, who fell into the habit of swearing by his life.
All the while, he himself was astonished at the honours Budur was showering on him, saying to himself: ‘There must be some reason for this affection and it may be that the king is showing me such excessive favour for some evil purpose. I shall have to ask his permission to leave his lands.’ So he went to Budur and said: ‘Your majesty, you have treated me with very great favour, but the crowning favour would be permission from you for me to leave, and for you to take back everything that you have generously given me.’ Budur smiled and said: ‘What has led you to want to run the risk of a voyage when you are being treated with the greatest honour and ever-increasing favour?’ Qamar al-Zaman replied: ‘Your majesty, if this honour comes unprompted, then it is a most remarkable thing, especially as you have promoted me to ranks that are the proper preserve of the old, while I am only a juvenile.’ ‘The reason for this,’ said Budur, ‘is that I love you because of your surpassing beauty and your unique loveliness. If you let me have what I want from you, I shall honour you even further with gifts and favours, and young as you are I shall appoint you vizier, just as the people made me their ruler, although I too am young. These days, there is nothing remarkable in the young becoming leaders. How well the poet has expressed it:
It is as though our age belongs to the tribe of Lot,
Who have a passion for advancing the young.’
When Qamar al-Zaman heard this, his cheeks blushed fiery red for shame and he said: ‘I have no need of this honour, which would lead me to commit a sin. Rather, I shall live poor as far as money goes but rich in perfect manliness.’ Budur replied: ‘I am not to be taken in by this piety of yours, which comes from pride and coquetry. How well the poet has said:
I spoke of a pledge of union and he said to me:
“How much longer will you talk in this hurtful way?”
But when I showed him a dinar, he changed his tune,
And said: “How can one escape what fate decreed?” ’
When Qamar al-Zaman heard this and had understood the point of the lines, he said: ‘O king, I am not accustomed to this and I have not the strength to endure such a burden. If those who are older than me cannot bear it, how can I, being only a youth?’ Budur smiled on hearing this and said: ‘It is remarkable how error shows itself through what is right. If you are a child, how can you be afraid of sinning by committing an unlawful act, when you have not reached the age of responsibility? A minor cannot be blamed or punished for a fault. You have proved the point against yourself by your own argument. You have to accept what is implied by the word “union”, so let there be no more refusals or shying away. What God decrees is destined to come about and I have more cause than you to fear falling into error
. How well the poet has expressed it:
My tool is large, but the young boy says:
“Strike like a hero to the inmost parts.”
I told him: “That is not permissible,” but he said:
“It is to me,” and so, uncritically, I slept with him.’
When Qamar al-Zaman heard this, the light in his eyes turned to darkness. ‘O king,’ he said, ‘you have beautiful women and slave girls whose like is to be found nowhere else in this age. Why not content yourself with them and leave me alone? Do what you want with them and let me be.’ ‘What you say is true,’ replied Budur, ‘but they cannot cure the painful agony of my love for you. When natural instincts are corrupted, they will heed no advice. Stop arguing and listen to what one poet has said:
When market fruits are set out, as you see,
Some may choose figs and others sycamores.