The Arabian Nights (New Deluxe Edition)

by Muhsin Mahdi

  O my beloved, as I shed my tears,

  I should acquaint you with my sorry plight:

  When I avoid you, I yearn for you so

  And feel a passion that does burn and blight.

  ’Tis not that I hate or wish to forget,

  But that such love can such wisdom beget!

  ’Ajib felt tenderness for him, and his heart throbbed. He turned to the eunuch and said, “Tutor, I feel sympathy and pity for this cook, who seems to have lost a son or a brother. Let us enter his shop and by accepting his hospitality console him; perhaps God will reward this act by reuniting me with my father.” When the eunuch heard his words, he was angry and said, “What a fine thing for a vizier’s son to eat at a cookshop! While I stand here to protect you with this club even from people’s looks, how can I let you enter their shops?” When Badr al-Din heard what the eunuch said, he turned to his son and recited the following verses:

  I marvel that they guard you with one slave,

  While many are enslaved by your own grace,

  The basil of the beard and jewels of the mouth,

  The mole of ambergris and rubies of the face.

  Then Badr al-Din turned to the eunuch and said, “Noble lord, will you make me happy by entering my shop, you who are like a chestnut, black without but white within, just like him of whom the poet said?” The eunuch laughed and asked, “For God’s sake, what did the poet say?” Badr al-Din recited the following verses:

  Were he not such a fine and trusty man,

  He would not in the court hold such a sway,

  Or guard the harem with such zeal and care

  That even the angels do him homage pay.

  In blackness he excels, but ’tis his deeds,

  His noble deeds that outshine the bright day.

  This pleased the eunuch, who laughed and, taking ’Ajib by the hand, entered Badr al-Din’s shop. Badr al-Din placed before them a sizzling bowl of pomegranate seeds conserved with almonds and sugar, and they ate and found it extremely delicious. ’Ajib turned to his father and said, “Sit down and eat with us, and may the Almighty God reunite me with the one for whom I long!” Badr al-Din said, “Son, have you too at your tender age suffered the loss of one you love?” ’Ajib replied, “Yes uncle, my heart bleeds for the loss of one I love, and my grandfather and I have been roaming the land in search of him. Alas, how I long to be reunited with him!” Then he wept and Badr al-Din wept at the sight of his son’s tears and at the thought of his own separation from his home and mother, in a distant land, and he recited the following verses:

  If ever we meet each other again,

  I will have much about which to complain,

  For no letter can cure the ailing heart,

  Nor can another voice a lover’s pain.

  The critics censure my abundant tears,

  But tears are little for lovers to pay.

  When will the Good Lord bring me back my love

  And let my care and sorrow go away?

  If we meet then, I will to you complain,

  For none but I myself can voice such pain.

  The eunuch felt pity for Badr al-Din, and after they ate together, he took ’Ajib and departed. But when they left the shop, Badr al-Din felt as if his soul had left his body and had gone with them. He could not bear to be without them even for a single moment; so he closed his shop and followed them.

  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 NINETY-SECOND NIGHT

  The following night Shahrazad said:

  I heard, O happy King, that Ja’far said to the caliph:

  Badr al-Din closed his shop and followed his son, without knowing that he was his son. He walked until he caught up with them before they reached the city gate and kept following them. When the eunuch looked behind and saw him, he said, “Damn it, what do you want?” Badr al-Din replied, “Noble lord, when you departed, I felt that my soul had left me and gone with you; besides, as I have some business outside the Victory Gate, I thought that I would come out to finish it and return.” The eunuch was angry and said to ’Ajib, “This is what I feared, and this is what you have done to me. When one is blind, one does not see ahead. Because we entered this fellow’s shop and ate an unfortunate mouthful, he takes liberties with us and follows us from place to place.” ’Ajib turned around and, seeing the cook following him, reddened with anger and said to the eunuch, “Let him walk like any Muslim, but if he turns in the same direction when we come outside the city and turns toward our tents, we will know that he is following us.” Then he bowed his head and walked on, with the eunuch behind him.

  Badr al-Din followed them until they came to the Plain of Pebbles and drew near their tents, and when ’Ajib turned around and saw Badr al-Din still following him, he flushed and turned pale, angry and afraid that his grandfather might find out that he had gone into a cookshop and that he had been followed by one of the cooks; and when ’Ajib saw Badr al-Din’s eyes fixed on him, for he was like a body without a soul, he thought that they were the eyes of a treacherous or a lewd fellow, and his rage mounted. He bent to the ground, picked up a granite stone weighing a pound, and threw it at his father. It struck him on the forehead, cutting it open from eyebrow to eyebrow, and he fell down in a swoon, with his blood streaming down over his face, while ’Ajib and the eunuch headed to their tents. When Badr al-Din came to himself, he wiped away the blood and, taking off his turban, bandaged his wound with it, blaming himself and saying, “I wronged the boy in closing my shop and following him, making him think that I was some treacherous or lewd fellow.” Then he returned to his shop, where every now and then he would feel a bit of nostalgia for his mother in Basra, weep for her, and recite the following verses:

  If you ask fair play of fate, you wrong it,

  For blameless fate is not meant to be fair.

  Take what may please you and be not concerned,

  For in this life, one day is troubled, one day fair.

  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 I stay alive!”

  THE NINETY-THIRD NIGHT

  The following night Shahrazad said:

  I heard, O happy King, that Ja’far said to the caliph:

  Badr al-Din returned to his shop and resumed selling his food. Meanwhile the vizier, his uncle, stayed in Damascus for three days and departed for Homs, and after he arrived there and finished his search, he departed for Hama, where he spent the night. Again, after he finished his search, he departed, pressing on until he reached Aleppo,9 where he stayed for two days. Then going through Dyarbakir, Mardin, Sinjar, and Mosul,1 he fared on until he reached Basra. When he arrived, he went up to meet the king, who received him with honor and esteem and asked the reason for his coming. Shams al-Din related to him his story and told him that his vizier, Nur al-Din Ali of Egypt, was his brother. The king commended Nur al-Din’s soul to the mercy of God and said, “My lord, he lived here for fifteen years; then he died, leaving a son, who stayed here only one month after his father’s death and disappeared without any trace or news. But his mother, who was the daughter of my old vizier, is still with us.” Shams al-Din asked the king for permission to visit her and meet with her, and the king gave him permission.

  He went to his brother Nur al-Din’s house and looked around and kissed the threshold. And he thought of his brother Nur al-Din and how he had died in a foreign land, and he recited the following verses:

  I wander through the halls where Leyla lived,

  And in my sorrow kiss the stony walls.

  ’Tis not for the stones that I burn with love

  But for the dear one who dwelt in the halls.

  Th
en he entered the main gate and found himself in a spacious courtyard, at the end of which stood an arched door vaulted over with granite inlaid with multicolored marble. He walked around the house and, casting his eyes on the walls, saw his brother Nur al-Din’s name inscribed in letters of gold and Iraqi lapis lazuli.2 He went up to the inscription and kissed it, and, thinking of his brother and his loss, he wept and repeated the following verses:

  I ask for news of you the rising sun

  And of the lightning’s flash of you inquire

  And in the throes of passion pass my night,

  Without complaining of love’s hellish fire.

  O my love, if our parting longer lasts

  My pining heart with pain will waste away,

  But if you bless my sad eyes with your sight,

  The day we meet will be a blessed day.

  Think not that I have found another love;

  There is no room for others in my heart.

  Pity a tortured lover, sick with love,

  Whose heart by parting has been torn apart.

  If fate should bless my sad eyes with your sight,

  I would that day offer my thanks to fate.

  May God defeat all those who wish us ill

  And thwart those who slander to separate.

  Then he walked in and stopped at the door of the hall.

  In the intervening years, his brother’s widow, the mother of Badr al-Din Hasan of Basra, had, from the day of her son’s disappearance, given herself up to weeping and lamentation, day and night, and after a long time went by, she made a tomb for her son in the middle of the hall and continued to weep there, day and night. When her brother-in-law reached the hall and stood at the door, he saw her draping the tomb with her flowing hair and heard her invoking her son Badr al-Din Hasan, weeping, and repeating these verses:

  O tomb, O tomb, has he his beauties lost,

  Or have you lost yourself that radiant look?

  O tomb, neither a garden nor a star,

  The sun and moon at once how can you host?

  Shams al-Din entered and, after greeting her, informed her that he was her brother-in-law and told her what had happened.

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

  THE NINETY-FOURTH NIGHT

  The following night, Shahrazad said:

  I heard, O happy King, that Ja’far said to the caliph:

  Shams al-Din told her what had happened and how Badr al-Din had spent a night at his house, ten years ago, but had disappeared in the morning, how on that night the young man had gone in to his daughter, taken her virginity, and made her pregnant, and how when her time came, she gave birth to a boy, concluding, “This boy with me here is the son of your son.” When Badr al-Din’s mother heard this news of her son, that he was still alive, she looked at her brother-in-law and threw herself at his feet, wept bitterly, and recited the following verses:

  How good is he who tells me they have come,

  For he brings me the best of news to know!

  Were he content with worn-out robes, a heart,

  At parting torn, I would on him bestow.

  Then she rose, embraced ’Ajib, pressing him to her heart, kissed him and was kissed by him, and wept. But the vizier said to her, “This is no time for weeping. Get yourself ready and come with us to the land of Egypt, and we will perhaps be reunited with your son, my nephew. This story should be written down!” She rose at once and prepared herself for the journey, while the vizier went to take his leave of the king, who provided him for the journey, sending with him gifts to the king of Egypt, and bade him good-bye.

  Shams al-Din set out of Basra on his journey homeward, and he fared on until he reached Aleppo, where he stayed for three days. Then he resumed his journey until he came to Damascus and halted, pitching his tents in the same place and saying to his men, “We shall stay here for two or three days to buy some fabrics, as well as other presents for the king.” Then he went on his business. Meanwhile ’Ajib came out and said to the eunuch, “Tutor, let us go into the city to enjoy the sights and see what has become of the cook whose food we ate and whose head I cut, for he was kind to us, but we treated him badly.” The eunuch replied, “Very well, let us.” Then they left the tents, as the blood tie drew ’Ajib to his father, and walked until they entered the city through the Heavenly Gate. They spent the time at the Umayyad Mosque3 till close to the time of the afternoon prayer; then they walked through the Grand Market4 and continued walking until they came to the shop of Badr al-Din Hasan and found him standing there. He had prepared a pomegranate-seed dish, preserved in almonds and sweet julep and flavored with cardamom and rosewater, and the food was ready to serve. When ’Ajib looked at him and saw him marked from eyebrow to eyebrow with the dark scar he had given him with the blow, he felt tenderness for him and was overcome with pity. He said to his father, “Peace be with you! You have been on my mind.” When Badr al-Din looked at him, his stomach began to flutter and his heart began to throb, as the blood hearkened to the blood. He bowed his head and tried to reply, but his tongue could not find the words. Then still overwhelmed, he raised his head, looked at his son sadly and imploringly, and recited the following verses:

  I longed to see the one I love, and when

  I did, I stood before him dumb and blind.

  I bowed my head in reverence and awe

  But failed to hide the love that seethed behind.

  My heart was full of troubles and concerns,

  But not a single word bespoke my mind.

  Then he said to ’Ajib, “Perhaps you and the noble gentleman will enter my shop and eat my food to heal my broken heart, for by God, I cannot look at you without a throbbing in my heart. When I followed you, the other time, I was beside myself.” ’Ajib replied …

  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 NINETY-FIFTH NIGHT

  The following night Shahrazad said:

  I heard, O happy King, that Ja’far said to the caliph:

  Badr al-Din said to his son, “When I followed you, I was beside myself.” ’Ajib replied, “You must be very fond of us. You gave us a mouthful of food and, assuming that we owed you something, you tried to dishonor us. This time we will not eat anything unless you swear that you will not hold us under any obligation, follow us, or make any claim on us. Else we will not visit you again. We are staying here for about a week, so that my grandfather may buy presents for the king of Egypt.” Badr al-Din said, “Very well, you may do as you please.” ’Ajib and the eunuch entered the shop; and Badr al-Din ladled from the top of the pot a bowlful of food and placed it before them. ’Ajib said to him, “Sit down and eat with us,” and Badr al-Din was glad and sat down and ate with his son, with his eyes fixed on him, for his whole being yearned for him. ’Ajib said, “Ha, ha, haven’t I told you that you are an overbearing lover? Stop staring at my face!” Badr al-Din sighed and recited the following verses:

  Passion for you lies deeply in the heart,

  A secret sealed in darkness, seen by none.

  O you whose beauty shames the shining moon,

  Whose ample grace rivals the rising sun,

  Your radiant face frustrates the burning heart

  And with hopelessness afflicts love’s desire.

  Your mouth is nectar, but I die of thirst;

  Your face is Heaven, but I burn in fire.

  They ate together, and Badr al-Din kept putting morsels, now in ’Ajib’s mouth, now in the eunuch’s, until they were satisfied. They rose up, and Badr al-Din poured water on their hands and, loosening a towel from his waist, gave it to them to wipe their hands with, and sprinkled
them with rosewater from a casting bottle. Then he ran out of the shop and rushed back with an earthenware pitcher containing a sweet drink, flavored with rosewater and cooled with snow. He set it before them, saying, “Complete your kindness to me.” ’Ajib took the pitcher and drank and passed it to the eunuch, and they kept passing it around until they had had enough and their stomachs felt too full, for they had eaten much more than usual. Then they thanked him and, bidding him good-bye, hurried through the city until they came out through the East Gate and hastened to their tents. ’Ajib went to see his grandmother, Badr al-Din’s mother, and she kissed him and, thinking of her son Badr al-Din and his days with her, sighed and wept, until her veil was wet, and recited the following verses:

  Had I not thought that we would meet again,

  I would have after you of life despaired.

  I swear my heart holds nothing but your love,

  By God who knows and has my secret shared.

  Then she asked ’Ajib, “Son, where have you been?” and set food before him, and as it had been foreordained, they too had cooked a pomegranate-seed dish, except that this one had less sugar. She gave him a bowlful, together with some bread, and said to the eunuch, “Eat with him.” Saying to himself, “By God, I can’t even smell the bread,” he sat down to eat.

  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 I stay alive!”

  THE NINETY-SIXTH NIGHT

  The following night Shahrazad said: