The Arabian Nights (New Deluxe Edition)

by Muhsin Mahdi

  But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then Dinarzad said, “Sister, what a strange and entertaining story!” Shahrazad replied, “What is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night if I stay alive!”

  THE FIFTY-EIGHTH NIGHT

  The following night Dinarzad said to her sister Shahrazad, “Please, sister, if you are not sleepy, tell us the rest of the story of the third dervish.” Shahrazad replied, “With the greatest pleasure”:

  It is related, O King, that King ‘Ajib, the third dervish, said:

  When the young men finished their explanation, they let me into the skin sack, sewed me up, and returned to the palace. Soon I felt the white bird approach, and snatching me up with his talons, he flew away with me for a while and set me down on the mountain. I ripped the skin open and came out, and when the bird saw me, he flew away. I proceeded immediately to walk until I reached the palace and found it to be exactly as they had described it. The door stood open, and when I entered, I found myself in a spacious and lovely hall as vast as a playground. It was surrounded by forty chambers with doors of sandal- and aloewood, covered with plates of red gold and graced with silver handles. At the far end of the hall, I saw forty girls, sumptuously dressed and lavishly adorned. They looked like moons, so lovely that none could tire of gazing on them. When they saw me, they said in one voice, “O lord, welcome, O master, welcome! and good cheer to you, lord! We have been expecting one like you for months. Praised be God who has sent us one who is as worthy of us as we are of him.” Then they raced toward me and made me sit on a high couch, saying, “This day, you are our lord and master, and we are your maids and servants, at your beck and call.” Then while I sat marveling at their behavior, they rose, and some of them set food before me; others warmed water and washed my hands and feet and changed my clothes; others mixed juice and gave me to drink; and they all gathered around me, joyful at my coming. Then they sat down to converse with me and question me till nightfall.

  But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then Dinarzad said, “Sister, what a strange and entertaining story!” Shahrazad replied, “What is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night if the king spares me and lets me live!”

  THE FIFTY-NINTH NIGHT

  The following night Dinarzad said to her sister Shahrazad, “Sister, if you are not sleepy, tell us the rest of the story.” Shahrazad replied, “Very well”:

  It is related, O King, that the third dervish said to the girl:

  My lady, the girls sat around me, and when night came, five of them rose and set up a banquet with plenty of nuts and fragrant herbs. Then they brought the wine vessels and we sat to drink, with the girls sitting all around me, some singing, some playing the flute, the psalter, the lute, and all other musical instruments, while the bowls and cups went round. I was so happy that I forgot every sorrow in the world, saying to myself, “‘This is the life; alas, that it is fleeting.’” I enjoyed myself with them until most of the night was gone and we were drunk. Then they said to me, “O our lord, choose from among us whomever you wish to spend this night with you and not return to be your bedfellow again until forty days will have passed.” I chose a girl who had a lovely face and dark eyes, with black hair, joining brows, and a mouth with slightly parted teeth. Perfect in every way, like a willow bough or a stalk of sweet basil, her beauty struck the eye and bewildered the mind. She was like the one of whom the poet said,

  She bent and swayed like a ripe willow bough,

  O more lovely, sweet, and delicious sight!

  She smiled and her glittering mouth revealed

  The flashing stars that answered light with light.

  She loosened her black tresses, and the morn

  Became a dusky, black, and darkling night,

  And when her radiant face shone in the dark,

  From east to west the gloomy world turned bright.

  ’Tis foolish to compare her to a roe;

  How can such fledgling thing such beauties show,

  Such lovely body, such honeydew lips,

  Such sweet nectar to drink, such joy to know,

  Such wide eyes that with the arrows of love

  The tortured victim pierce; how can the roe?

  I loved her madly like a pagan boy,

  No wonder when with love one is laid low.

  That night I slept with her and spent the best of nights.

  But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then her sister said, “Sister, what a strange and entertaining story!” Shahrazad replied, “What is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night if I stay alive!”

  THE SIXTIETH NIGHT

  The following night Dinarzad said to her sister Shahrazad, “Please, sister, tell us the rest of the story of the third dervish.” Shahrazad replied, “Very well”:

  I heard, O King, that the third dervish said to the girl:

  When it was morning, the girls took me to a bath in the palace, and after they bathed me, they dressed me in fine clothes. Then they served food, and after we ate they served wine, and as the cup was passed around, we drank into the night. Then they said, “Choose from among us whomever you wish to spend the night with; we are your maids, awaiting your command.” I chose a girl with a lovely face and a soft body, like her of whom the poet said:

  I saw two caskets on her bosom fair,

  Shielded with musk seals from lovers’ embrace.

  Against assault she guarded them with darts

  And arrowy glances from her lovely face.

  I spent with her a lovely night, and when morning came, I bathed and put on new clothes.

  My lady, to make a long story short, for a full year I lived with them a carefree life, eating and drinking, carousing, and spending every night with one of them. But one day, at the beginning of the new year, they began to wail and cry, bidding me farewell, clinging to me, and weeping. Amazed at their behavior, I asked, “What is the matter, for you are breaking my heart?” They replied, “We wish that we had never known you, for we had lived with many men but never met one more pleasant than you. May God never deprive us of you,” and they wept. I asked, “Why do you weep, for to me your tears are gall?” They replied with one voice, “The reason is our separation from you, of which none other than you yourself is the cause. If you listen to us, we will not be separated, but if you disobey us, we will. Our hearts tell us that you will not obey and that it will happen, and this is the cause of our weeping.” I said, “Explain the matter.” They replied, “Our lord and master, we are the daughters of kings, and we have lived together here for many years. It has been our custom to go away once a year for forty days and return to live here for the rest of the year, eating and drinking and taking our pleasure and enjoying ourselves here. Now this is how you will disobey us. We are about to leave for forty days. We commit to you now all the keys to this palace, which contains one hundred chambers. Eat and drink and enjoy looking around in every chamber, for each one you open will occupy you a full day, but there is one chamber you must never open or even approach, for it is its opening that will cause our separation. You have ninety-nine chambers to open and to enjoy looking at what is in them as you please, but if you open the one with the door of red gold, that will cause our separation.”

  But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then Dinarzad said, “Sister, what a strange and entertaining story!” Shahrazad replied, “What is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night if I stay alive!”

  THE SIXTY-FIRST NIGHT

  The following night Shahrazad said:

  I heard, O happy King, that the third dervish said to the girl:

  My lady, the forty girls said, “O our lord, the cause of our separation is in your hand. For God’s sake and for our sake, enjoy looking into all ninety-nine chambers, but don’t open the hundredth, lest we be separated. Be patient for forty days, and we shall come back to you.” Then one of them came up to me, embraced me
, wept, and repeated the following verses:

  When she drew near to bid adieu, her heart

  Burning with love and longing in her breast,

  Her tears and mine, wet pearls and carnelians,

  A necklace made for her and came to rest.

  I bid her farewell, saying, “By God, I will never open that door.” Then the girls left, shaking at me admonishing fingers.

  When they departed and I was left alone in the palace, I said to myself, “By God, I will never open that door and never cause our separation.” Then I went and opened the first chamber, and when I entered, I found myself in a garden with streams, trees, and abundant fruits. It was a garden like Paradise, with tall trees, intertwining branches, ripe fruits, singing birds, and running waters. Pleased with the sight, I walked through the trees, enjoying the perfume of the flowers and the song of the birds, which hymned together the glory of the Almighty One. I saw apples like those of which the poet said:

  Two colors, in one apple joining, seemed

  Two cheeks in the embrace of love’s desire,

  Two cheeks that, as from sleep they startled stood,

  One yellow turned with fright, one burned with fire.

  And I saw pears sweeter than sugar and rosewater and more aromatic than musk and ambergris and saw quinces like those of which the poet said:

  The quince has gathered every pleasing taste,

  Thereby the queen of fruits she has been crowned.

  Her taste is wine, a waft of musk her scent.

  Her hue is gold, her shape, like the moon, round.

  And I saw plums so lovely that they dazzled the eyes like polished rubies. At last I went out of the garden and closed the door.

  The following day I opened another door, and when I entered, I found myself in a large field full of palm trees and encircled by a running stream whose banks were covered with roses, jasmine, mignonettes, irises, daffodils, narcissus, violets, daisies, gillyflowers, and lilies of the valley; and as the breeze blew over these aromatic plants, the whole field was filled with the sweet aroma. After I enjoyed and diverted myself there for a while, I went out and closed the door. Then I opened a third door and found myself in a large hall covered with all kinds of colored marble, rare metals, and precious stones and hung with cages of aloe- and sandalwood, full of all kinds of singing birds, such as nightingales, thrushes, pigeons, ringdoves, turtledoves, silver doves, and Nubian doves. There I enjoyed myself, felt happy, and forgot my cares.

  Then I went to sleep, and in the morning I opened a fourth door and found myself in a large hall, surrounded by forty chambers whose doors stood open. I entered every chamber and found them full of jewels, such as pearls, emeralds, rubies, corals, and carbuncles, as well as gold and silver. I was amazed at such abundance and said to myself, “Such wealth could belong only to the greatest of kings, for no ordinary monarch could assemble such a fortune, not even if all the monarchs of the world joined together.” I felt happy and carefree, saying to myself, “I am the king of the age, for these jewels and this wealth are mine, and these girls belong to me and to me alone.” O my lady, I enjoyed myself in chamber after chamber until thirty-nine days had passed and there remained only one day and one night. During that time, I had opened all ninety-nine chambers, and there remained only the hundredth, the one the girls had cautioned me not to open.

  But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then Dinarzad said to her sister, “Sister, what an amazing and entertaining story!” Shahrazad replied, “What is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night if the king spares me and lets me live!”

  THE SIXTY-SECOND NIGHT

  The following night Shahrazad said:

  I heard, O happy King, that the dervish said:

  There remained only that one chamber to complete the hundred, and I began to feel obsessed and tempted with it, as Satan urged me to open it and cause my undoing. Even though there remained but one night for the appointed time for the girls to return and spend a whole year with me, I was no longer able to restrain myself and, succumbing to the devil, at last opened the door plated with gold. As soon as I entered, I was met by a perfume that, as I smelled it, sent me reeling to the floor and made me swoon for a long time. When I came to myself, I summoned my courage and entered the chamber. I found the floor strewn with saffron and saw lamps of gold and silver, fed with costly oils, and saw fragrant candles burning with aloes and ambergris. I also saw two incense burners, each as large as a kneading bowl, full of glowing embers in which burned the incense of aloewood, ambergris, musk, and frankincense, and as the incense burned, the smoke rose to blend with the odors of the candles and the saffron, filling the chamber with perfume.

  O my lady, I then saw a deep-black horse as black as the darkest night, bridled and ready with a saddle of red gold, as it stood before two mangers of clear crystal, one filled with husked sesame, the other with rosewater scented with musk. When I saw the horse, I was exceedingly amazed, and said to myself, “There is something of great importance about this horse.” Then the devil took hold of me again, and I took the horse from his place and led him outside the palace. I got on his back and tried to ride him, but he refused to move. I kicked him, but he did not stir. Then I took the whip and hit him angrily, and as soon as he felt the blow, he neighed with a sound like roaring thunder and, spreading a pair of wings, flew up with me and disappeared in the sky. A while later he landed on the roof of another palace and, throwing me off his back, lashed my face with his tail with a blow so hard that it gouged out my eye and made it roll on my cheek, leaving me one-eyed. I cried, “There is no power and no strength save in God, the Almighty, the Magnificent. I have taunted the one-eyed young men until I became one-eyed like them.”

  I looked down from the terrace of the palace and saw again the ten couches with the blue bedding and realized that the palace was the same one that belonged to the ten one-eyed young men who had admonished me and whose admonition I had refused to follow. I went down from the roof and sat down amid the couches, and hardly had I done so when I saw the young men and their old companion approaching. When they saw me, they cried, “You are not welcome or wanted here. By God, we will not let you stay. May you perish.” I replied, “All I wanted to know was why you smeared your faces with blue and black soot.” They said, “Each of us suffered the same misfortune as you did. We all lived the best of lives in bliss, feeding on chicken, sipping wine from crystal cups, resting on silk brocade, and sleeping on the breasts of fair women. We had to wait one more day to gain a year of pleasures, such food and drink and such entertainment, but because of our curious eyes, we lost our eyes, and now, as you see, we are left to mourn our misfortune.” I said, “Do not blame me for what I did, for I have become like you. Indeed, I want you to bring me all ten black trays to blacken my face,” and I burst into bitter tears. They replied, “By God, by God, we will never harbor you or let you stay with us. Get out of here, go to Baghdad, and find someone to help you there.”

  When I saw that there was no avail against their harsh treatment and when I recalled the miseries written on my forehead, how I killed the young man and how ‘I would be sitting pretty but for my curiosity,’ I could no longer stand it. I shaved off my beard and eyebrows, renounced everything, and roamed the world, a one-eyed dervish. Then God granted me safe passage and I reached Baghdad on the evening of this very night. Here I met these two men standing at a loss, and I greeted them and said, “I am a stranger,” and they replied, “We are strangers like you.” We formed an extraordinary group, for by coincidence, all three of us happened to be blind in the right eye. This, my lady, was the cause of losing my eye and shaving off my beard.

  It is related, O happy King, that after the girl heard the dervishes’ tales, she said to them, “Stroke your heads and go your way,” but they replied, “By God, we will not go until we hear our companions’ tales.” Then, turning to the caliph, Ja’far, and Masrur, the girl said, “Tell us your tales.” Ja’far stood fort
h and said, “O my lady, we are citizens of Mosul who have come to your city for trade. When we arrived here, we took lodgings in the merchants’ inn and we traded and sold our goods. Tonight a merchant of your city held a party and invited all the merchants in the inn, including our group, to his house, where we had a good time, with choice wine, entertainment, and singing girls. Then there was argument and yelling among some of the guests, and the prefect of police raided the place. Some of us were arrested and some escaped. We were among those who escaped, and when we went to the inn, late at night, we found the door locked, not to be opened again till sunrise. We wandered helplessly, not knowing where to go, for fear that the police would catch up with us, arrest us, and humiliate us. God drove us to your house, and when we heard the beautiful singing and the sound of carousing, we knew that there was a company having a party inside and said to ourselves that we would enter at your service and spend the rest of our night with you to entertain you and to make our pleasure complete. It pleased you to offer us your hospitality and to be generous and kind. This was the cause of our coming to you.”

  The dervishes said, “O our lady and mistress, we wish you to grant us as a favor the lives of these three men and to let us depart with gratitude.” Looking at the entire group, the girl replied, “I grant you your lives, as a favor to all.” When they were outside the house, the caliph asked the dervishes, “Men, where are you going, for it is still dark?” They replied, “By God, sir, we do not know where to go.” He said, “Come and sleep at our place.” Then, turning to Ja’far, the caliph said, “Take these men home with you for the night and bring them before me early tomorrow morning, so that we may chronicle for each his adventure that we have heard tonight.” Ja’far did as the caliph bade him, while the caliph returned to his palace. But the caliph was agitated and stayed awake, pondering the mishaps of the dervishes and how they had changed from being sons of kings to what they were now, and burning with curiosity to hear the stories of the flogged girl and the other with the two black bitches. He could not sleep a wink and waited impatiently for the morning.