One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  The branches strain it in its leaves for joyance, e’en as one Kisseth a mouth that knoweth nought of rigour or despite.

  Then he gave a fourth a bunch and he recited these verses:

  Seest not the rose-bush in blossom? Each mounted on its cane, Full many a marvel it holdeth, that ravish heart and brain.

  As they were rubies with beryl encompassed about, they show, And each in the midst of its calyx doth somewhat of gold contain.

  Then he gave a bunch to a fifth and he recited these verses:

  Wands of green beryl fruit did bear, and when ’twas ripe, behold, As ingots to the sight it was of vegetable gold.

  Ay, and the crystal drops that fell from out the tender leaves, Meseemed, were like to very tears from languorous eyelids rolled.

  Then he gave a sixth a bunch and he recited the following verses:

  O rose, thou dost all charms comprise, that may amuse the wit, And God to thee the pleasantest of secrets doth commit.

  Meseems as if a loved one’s cheek it were and eke as if A longing lover with a piece of gold had handselled it.

  Then he gave a bunch to a seventh and he recited these verses:

  I said to the rose, ‘What ails thy thorns to be So swift to wound and hurt all those that touch thy charms?’

  It answered, ‘All the flowers my soldiers are, in sooth, And I their Sultan am and these my thorns my arms.’

  And he gave an eighth a bunch and he recited the following:

  God watch o’er a rose that’s grown yellow and bright, Resplendent, pure gold as it were to the sight,

  And guard the fair boughs that have borne it, to boot, With the mock yellow suns of its flowerage bedight!

  Then he gave a bunch to a ninth and he recited these verses:

  The yellow roses stir to gladness uncontrolled The heart of every slave of passion, young or old.

  A shrub that, strange to say, is water given to drink Of silver and for fruit, bears vegetable gold!

  Then he gave a bunch of roses to the tenth and last and he recited the following verses:

  Seest not the hosts of the rose, in raiment red And yellow that glitter from out their blossoming-stead?

  I liken the yellow rose, with its thorn therein, To an emerald lance, through a golden target sped.

  Then the gardener brought the wine-service and setting it before them, on a tray of porcelain sprayed with red gold, recited the following verses:

  Dawn heraldeth the light; so pour me out, I pray, Of wine, such wine as makes the faintest-hearted gay.

  So pure and bright it is, that whether wine in cup Or cup in wine be held, i’ faith, ’tis hard to say.

  Then he filled and drank and the cup went round, till it came to Noureddin’s turn, whereupon the gardener filled the cup and handed it to him; but he said, ‘I know not this thing nor have I ever drunken thereof, for therein is a great sin and the Almighty Lord hath forbidden it in His book.’ ‘O my lord Noureddin,’ answered the gardener, ‘if thou forbear to drink only by reason of the sin, verily God (blessed and exalted be He!) is bountiful, mild, forgiving and compassionate and pardoneth the greatest sins. His mercy embraceth all things and be it upon the poet who says:

  Be as thou wilt and banish dread and care, For God is bountiful and debonair;

  So of two things, the doing hurt to men And giving God a partner, thou beware.’

  Then said one of the sons of the merchants, ‘My life on thee, O my lord Noureddin, drink of this cup!’ And another conjured him by the oath of divorce and yet another stood before him, till he was ashamed and taking the cup from the gardener, drank a mouthful, but spat it out again, saying, ‘It is bitter.’ ‘O my lord Noureddin,’ said the gardener, ‘knowest thou not that the sweetest things, when taken by way of medicine, are bitter? Were this not bitter, it would lack of the [many] virtues it possesseth; amongst which are that it digesteth food and doth away care and anxiety and dispelleth vapours and clarifieth the blood and cleareth the complexion and enliveneth the body and hearteneth the poltroon and fortifieth the sexual power; but to name all its virtues would be tedious. Quoth one of the poets:

  We’ll drink, for God His clemency encompasseth the soul On every side: I medicine my ailments with the bowl;

  And nought (for well I know its sin) save God His saw, ‘Therein Are for the folk advantages,’ doth me thereto cajole.

  Then he opened one of the cupboards there and taking out a loaf of reined sugar, broke of a great piece, which he put in Noureddin’s cup, saying, ‘O my lord, if thou fear to drink wine, because of its bitterness, drink now, for it is sweet.’ So he took the cup and emptied it: whereupon one of his comrades filled him another, saying, ‘I am thy slave,’ and another [did the like], saying, ‘I am one of thy servants,’ and a third said, ‘For my sake!’ and a fourth, ‘God on thee, O my lord Noureddin, heal my heart!’ And so they plied him with wine, till they had made him drink ten cups.

  Now Noureddin’s body wag virgin [of wine-bibbing], nor all his life had he drunken wine till then, wherefore its fumes mounted to his brain and drunkenness was stark upon him and he stood up (and indeed his tongue was embarrassed and his speech thick) and said, ‘O company, by Allah, ye are fair and your speech and place are goodly, but there needs the hearing of sweet music; for drink without music lacks the chief of its essentials, even as saith the poet:

  Pass round the cup to the old and the young man, too, And take the bowl from the hand of the shining moon,

  But without music, I charge you, forbear to drink; I see even horses drink to a whistled tune.’

  Therewith up rose the gardener and mounting one of the young men’s mules, was absent awhile, after which he returned with a girl of Cairo, as she were a delicate fat sheep’s tail or pure silver or a dinar in a porcelain dish or a gazelle in the desert. She had a face that put to shame the shining sun and bewitching eyes and brows like bended bows and rosy cheeks and pearly teeth and sugared lips and languishing glances and ivory breasts and slender body, full of folds and dimples, and buttocks like stuffed pillows and thighs like columns of Syrian marble, and between them what was like a sachet [of spices] folded in a wrapper. Quoth the poet of her:

  A fair one, to idolaters if she herself should show, They’d leave their idols and her face for only Lord would know.

  If in the Eastward she appeared unto a monk, for sure He’d cease from turning to the West and to the East bend low;

  And if into the briny sea one day she chanced to spit, Assuredly the salt sea’s floods straight fresh and sweet would grow.

  And quoth another:

  More brilliant than the moon at full, with liquid languorous eyes, She seems an antelope that takes the lion-whelps to prize.

  The midnight of her locks lets fall o’er her a tent of hair, Unfixed of tent-pegs, that protects her beauty from the spies.

  The fire, that in th’ unfading rose still burneth of her cheek, Is fed with entrails that consume and hearts and lovers’ sighs.

  An if the beauties of the time beheld her, unto her, Saying, ‘Unto the precedent the palm,’ they would arise.

  And how well saith a third:

  Three things for ever hinder her to visit us, for fear Of the intriguing spy and eke the rancorous envier;

  Her forehead’s lustre and the sound of all her ornaments And the sweet scent her creases hold of ambergris and myrrh.

  Grant with the border of her sleeve she hide her brow and doff Her ornaments, how shall she do her scent away from her?

  She was like the moon, when it appears on its fourteenth night, and was clad in a garment of blue, with a veil of green, over a flower-white forehead, that amazed all wits and confounded those of understanding. And indeed she was possessed of the utmost grace and beauty and symmetry, as it were she of whom the poet would speak when he saith:

  She comes in a robe the colour of ultramarine, Blue as the stainless sky unflecked with white.

  I view her with yearning eyes and she seems to me A moon of the summer set
in a winter’s night.

  And how goodly is the saying of another and how excellent!

  She came unto me, straitly veiled, and I to her did say, ‘Thy face, the bright, resplendent moon, uncover and display.’

  Quoth she, ‘I fear reproach,’ and I, ‘Forbear this idle talk: Let not the shifts of time and fate affright thee or dismay.’

  So from her face she raised the veil that hid her charms and tears Upon the jewels of her cheeks fell, like a crystal spray.

  Indeed, I thought to kiss her cheek, that thereanent to God She might make moan of me upon the Resurrection Day;

  So were we twain the first to plead of lovers, each ‘gainst each, Whenas the dead shall rise, before the Lord whom all obey;

  And I, ‘Prolong our standing-up and reckoning,’ would say, ‘That so mine eyes may feed their fill upon my loved one aye.’

  Then said the gardener to her, ‘O lady of fair ones and mistress of every shining star, know that we sought not, in bringing thee hither, but that thou shouldst entertain this comely youth here, my lord Noureddin, for he hath only come to this place this day.’ And she answered, saying, ‘Would thou hadst told me, that I might have brought what I have with me!’ ‘O my lady,’ rejoined the gardener, ‘I will go and fetch it to thee.’ ‘As thou wilt,’ replied she: and he said, ‘Give me a token.’ So she gave him a handkerchief and he went away in haste and returned after awhile, bearing a bag of green satin, with cords of gold. She took the bag from him and opening it, shook it, whereupon there fell thereout two-and-thirty pieces of wood, which she fitted, one into another, till they became a polished lute of Indian workmanship.

  Then she uncovered her wrist and laying the lute in her lap, bent over it, as the mother bends over her child, and swept the strings with the tips of her fingers; whereupon it moaned and resounded and yearned after its former habitations; and it remembered the waters that gave it to drink [whilst yet in the tree,] and the earth whence it sprang and wherein it grew up and the carpenters who cut it and the polishers who polished it and the merchants who exported it and the ships that carried it; and it cried out and wailed and lamented; and it was as if she questioned it of all these things and it answered her with the tongue of the case, reciting the following verses:

  Whilom I was a tree, wherein the nightingales did nest; Whilst green my head, I swayed for them with longing and unrest.

  They made melodious moan on me, and I their plaining learnt, And so my secret was by this lament made manifest.

  The woodman felled me to the earthy though guiltless of offence, And wrought of me a slender lute, by singers’ hands carest;

  But, when their fingers sweep my strings, they tell that I am slain, One with duresse amongst mankind afflicted and oppress;

  Wherefore each boon-companion, when he heareth my lament, Grows mad with love and drunkenness o’ermasters every guest,

  And God inclineth unto me their hearts and I indeed Am to the highest place advanced in every noble breast.

  All who in loveliness excel do clip my waist and in The arms of every languorous-eyed gazelle my form is prest.

  May God the Lord ne’er sever us, nor live the loved one aye Who with estrangement and disdain her lover would molest!

  Then she was silent awhile, but presently taking the lute in her lap, bent over it, as the mother bends over her child, and preluded in many different modes; then, returning to the first, she sang the following verses:

  An they’d unto the lover incline or visit pay, From off his back the burden of longing he might lay.

  A nightingale o’ the branches vies with him, as she were A lover whose beloved hath lighted far away.

  Up and awake! The midnights of love-delight are clear And bright, With union’s splendour, as very break of day.

  Behold, to love and joyance the lute-strings summon us And eke to-day our enviers are heedless of our play.

  Seest not that unto pleasance four several things, to wit, Rose, gilly-flower and myrtle and lights unite alway?

  And here today assemble four things, by favouring fate, Lover, beloved, money and wine, to make us gay.

  So seize upon thy fortune i’ the world; for its delights Pass by and but traditions and chronicles do stay.

  When Noureddin heard this, he looked on her with eyes of love and could scarce contain himself for the violence of his inclination to her; and on like wise was it with her, because she looked at the company who were present of the sons of the merchants and at Noureddin and saw that he was amongst the rest as the moon among stars; for that he was sweet of speech and full of amorous grace, perfect in beauty and brightness and loveliness and accomplished in symmetry, pure of all defect, blander than the zephyr and more delicate than Tesnim, as saith of him the poet:

  By his cheeks’ unfading damask and his smiling teeth I swear, By the arrows that he feathers with the witchery of his air,

  By his sides so soft and tender and his glances bright and keen, By the whiteness of his forehead and the blackness of his hair,

  By his arched imperious eyebrows, chasing slumber from my lids With their yeas and noes that hold me ‘twixt rejoicing and despair,

  By the scorpions that he launches from his ringlet-clustered brows, Seeking still to slay his lovers with his rigours unaware,

  By the myrtle of his whiskers and the roses of his cheek, By his lips’ incarnate rubies and his teeth’s fine pearls and rare,

  By the straight and tender sapling of his shape, which for its fruit Doth the twin pomegranates, shining in his snowy bosom, wear,

  By his heavy hips that tremble, both in motion and repose, And the slender waist above them, all too slight their weight to bear,

  By the silk of his apparel and his quick and sprightly wit, By all attributes of beauty that are fallen to his share;

  Lo, the musk exhales its fragrance from his breath, and eke the breeze From his scent the perfume borrows, that it scatters everywhere.

  Yea, the sun in all his splendour cannot with his brightness vie And the crescent moon’s a fragment that he from his nails doth pare.

  Her verses pleased him and he swayed from side to side for drunkenness and fell a-praising her and saying:

  A luting maiden stole away Our wits for drunkenness one day.

  “Twas God the Lord that gifted us With speech,’ her strings to us did say.

  When she heard this, she looked at him with eyes of love and redoubled in passion and desire for him increased upon her, and indeed she marvelled at his beauty and grace and symmetry, so that she could not contain herself but took the lute again and sang the following:

  He chides me, if I look on him, and with disdain Entreats me, though my life is his for weal and bane;

  Yea, he repelleth me; yet what is in my heart He knows as if God’s self to him had made it plain.

  His likeness have I drawn midmost my palm and charged Mine eyes make moan for him and over him complain.

  Mine eyes will look on none save him, nor will my heart Aid me his cruelty with patience to sustain.

  Wherefore, O thou my heart, I’ll tear thee from my breast, For that thou art of those that envy me the swain.

  Whenas I say, ‘O heart, be comforted,’ ’tis vain; To turn to any else than him it will not deign.

  Noureddin wondered at the beauty of her song and the sweetness of her voice and the eloquence of her speech and his wit fled for stress of love and longing and distraction, so that he could not refrain from her a moment, but bent to her and strained her to his bosom; and she in like manner abandoned herself to his caresses and kissed him between the eyes. Then he kissed her on the mouth and they played at kisses with one another, after the manner of the billing of doves, till the others were distracted and rose to their feet; whereupon Noureddin was abashed and held his hand from her. Then she took her lute and preluding thereon in many different modes, returned to the first and sang the following verses:

  A moon, he draws from out his lids, whenas he turns and sways, A sword and puts
gazelles to shame, whenas he stands at gaze.

  A king, his all-surpassing charms his troops are, and for arms, His shape is like the spear of cane, whose straightness all men praise.

  An if his heart were but as soft as is his waist, no more Would he against his lovers sin nor fright them with affrays.

  Alas the hardness of his heart and softness of his waist! Why is not this to that transferred? Is there no way of ways?

  O thou that blam’st me for his love, excuse me rather thou: Thine be his beauty’s part etern and mine that which decays!

  When Noureddin heard the sweetness of her voice and the beauty of her verses, he inclined to her for delight and could not contain himself for excess of wonderment; so he recited these lines:

  Methought she was the very sun of morning’s self, until She veils her; but the fire she lit flames in my entrails still.

  What had it irked her, ho she signed and with her finger-tips A friendly salutation waved to us? Where were the ill?

  The railer saw her face and said (what while her charms that pass All other beauty did his wit with stupefaction fill,)

  ‘Is this then she for whom thou rav’st with longing for her love? Indeed, thou hast excuse.’ And I, ‘’Tis she who doth me thrill

  With arrows of her looks, nor can my abject, broken case Of strangerhood to pity move her unrelenting will.’

  I am become a slave of love, with heart enchained; I groan Day long and night long, ay, and weep with tears, as ‘twere a rill.

  She marvelled at his eloquence and grace and taking her lute, smote thereon after the goodliest of fashions repeating all the melodies, and sang the following verses:

  As thy face liveth, O thou the life of my spirit, I swear, I cannot remove from thy love, if I do or I do not despair.

  If, indeed, thou be cruel, in dreams thy phantom is favouring and kind, And if thou be absent, thy thought is my cheering companion fore’er.

  O thou that hast saddened my sight, though thou knowst that I seek not for aught To cheer me, nor aught but thy love I long for, to solace my care,

  Thy cheeks are twin roses, the dews of thy mouth are as wine to the taste; Wilt thou not then vouchsafe us thereof to drink in this pleasaunce so fair?