One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  At this I rejoiced and he put his head within the curtain and said to her, ‘Will that content thee?’ Whereupon she fell to blessing and thanking him. Then he called a servant and said to him, ‘Take this young man and do off his clothes and clothe him in costly raiment and incense him and bring him back to us.’ So the servant did with me as his master bade him and brought me back to him, and he set wine before me, even as before the rest of the company. Then the damsel fell to singing after the goodliest fashion and chanted these verses:

  They rail at me because, upon the parting day, I wept, when my belov’d farewell to me did say.

  They never knew the taste of severance nor felt The fire that in my breast for sorrow rageth aye.

  Only th’ afflicted one of passion knoweth, he Whose heart amongst these steads is lost and gone astray.

  The folk rejoiced in her song with an exceeding joy and my gladness redoubled, so that I took the lute from her and preluding after the most melodious fashion, sang the following verses:

  Ask favours, if thou needs must ask, Of generous men, Who affluence all their lives have known and happy fate.

  O’ the generous to ask brings honour, but upon The asking from a churl blame and dishonour wait.

  When thou must needs abase thyself, if thou must ask, I rede thee still abase thyself unto the great

  The generous to exalt no true abasement is ; To magnify the mean doth men humiliate.

  The company rejoiced in me with an exceeding joy and they ceased not from pleasure and delight, whilst anon I sang and anon the damsel, till we came to one of the landing-places, where the vessel moored and all on board went ashore and I with them. Now I was drunken with wine and squatted down to make water; but drowsiness overcame me and I slept, and the folk returned to the ship, without missing me, for that they also were drunken, and continued their voyage till they reached Bassora. As for me, I slept on till the heat of the sun aroused me, when I arose and looked about me, but saw no one. Now I had given my spending-money to the damsel and had not a rap left. Moreover, I had forgotten to ask the Hashimi his name and titles and where his house was at Bassora; so I was confounded and it was as if my joy at meeting the damsel had been but a dream; and I abode in perplexity till there came up a great vessel, in which I embarked and she carried me to Bassora.

  Now I had never entered the place and knew none there; so I accosted a grocer and taking of him inkhorn and paper, sat down to write. He admired my handwriting and seeing my dress soiled, questioned me of my case, to which I replied that I was a stranger and poor. Quoth he, ‘Wilt thou abide with me and order the accounts of my shop and I will give thee thy food and clothing and half a dirhem a day?’ ‘It is well,’ answered I and abode with him and kept his accounts and ordered his incomings and outgoings for a month, at the end of which time he found his receipts increased and his expenses lessened; wherefore he thanked me and made my wage a dirhem a day. When the year was out, he proposed to me to marry his daughter and become his partner in the shop. I agreed to this and went in to my wife and applied me to the shop. But I was broken in heart and spirit, and grief was apparent upon me; and the grocer used to drink and invite me thereto, but I refused for melancholy.

  On this wise I abode two years, till, one day, as I sat in the shop, there passed by a company of people with meat and drink, and I asked the grocer what was to do. Quoth he, ‘This is the day of the pleasure-makers, when all the musicians and dancers of the town go forth with the young men of fortune to the banks of the Ubulleh river and eat and drink among the trees there. My heart prompted me to divert myself with the sight of this thing and I said in myself, ‘Belike, I may foregather with her I love among these people.’ So I told the grocer that I had a mind to this and he said, ‘Up and go with them.’ And he made me ready meat and drink and I went till I came to the Ubulleh river, when, behold, the folk were going away.

  I was about to follow, when I espied the very bark in which the Hashimi had been with the damsel going along the river and the captain in her. So I cried out to him and he and his company knew me and took me on board with them and said to me, ‘Art thou yet alive?’ And they embraced me and questioned me of my case. So I told them my story and they said, ‘Indeed, we thought that drunkenness had gotten the mastery of thee and that thou [hadst fallen into the water and] wast drowned.’ Then I asked them of the damsel, and they answered, ‘When she came to know of thy loss, she rent her clothes and burnt the lute and fell to buffeting herself and lamenting, till we reached Bassora, when we said to her, ‘Leave this weeping and sorrowing.’ Quoth she, ‘I will don black and make me a tomb beside the house and abide thereby and repent from singing.’ So we suffered her to do this and on this wise she abideth to this day.’

  Then they carried me to the Hashimi’s house, where I saw the damsel as they had said. When she saw me, she gave a great cry, methought she had died, and I embraced her with a long embrace. Then said the Hashimi to me, ‘Take her.’ And I answered, ‘It is well but do thou free her and marry her to me, according to thy promise.’ So he did this and gave us costly goods and store of raiment and furniture and five hundred dinars, saying, ‘This is the amount of that which I purpose to allow you monthly, but on condition that thou be my boon-companion and that I hear the girl sing [when I will] .’ Moreover, he assigned us a house and bade transport thither all that we needed; so, when I went to the house, I found it full of furniture and stuffs and carried the damsel thither. Then I betook me to the grocer and told him all that had befallen me, begging him to hold me excused for putting away his daughter, without offence on her part; and I paid her her dowry and what else behoved me. I abode with the Hashimi on this wise two years and became a man of great wealth and was restored well-nigh to the former estate of prosperity wherein I had been at Baghdad, I and the damsel. And indeed God the Bountiful put an end to our troubles and vouchsafed us abundant good fortune and caused our patience to issue in the attainment of our desire: wherefore to Him be the praise in this world and the next.

  John Payne’s translation: detailed table of contents

  KING JELYAAD OF HIND AND HIS VIZIER SHIMAS; WHEREAFTER ENSUETH THE HISTORY OF KING WIRD KHAN, SON OF KING JELYAAD, WITH HIS WOMEN AND VIZIERS.

  There was once, of old days and in bygone ages and times, in the land of Hind, a mighty king, tall and goodly of parts and presence, noble and generous of nature, beneficent to the poor and loving the tillers of the soil and all the people of his kingdom. His name was Jelyaad and under his hand were two-and-seventy [vassal] kings and in his cities three hundred and fifty Cadis. He had threescore and ten viziers and over every ten of them he set a chief. The chiefest of all his viziers was a man called Shimas, who was then two-and-twenty years old, a man of comely presence and noble nature, pleasant of speech and quick in reply. Moreover, he was shrewd and skilful in all manner of business, for all his tender age, sagacious, a man of good counsel and government, versed in all arts and sciences and accomplishments; and the king loved him with an exceeding love and cherished him by reason of his proficiency in eloquence and rhetoric and the art of government and for that which God had given him of compassion and tender solicitude for the people; for he was a king just in his governance and a protector of his subjects, constant in beneficence to great and small and giving them that which befitted them of good governance and bounty and protection and security and a lightener of their burdens. And indeed he was loving to them all, high and low, entreating them with kindness and clemency and governing them on such goodly wise as none had done before him. But, with all this, God the Most High had not blessed him with a child, and this was grievous to him and to the people of his kingdom.

  It chanced, one night, as the king lay in his bed, occupied with anxious thought of the issue of the affair of his kingdom, that sleep overcame him and he dreamt that he poured water upon the roots of a tree, about which were many other trees; and behold there came fire out of this tree and burnt up all that encompassed it; whereupon Jelyaad awoke,
affrighted and trembling, and calling one of his servants, bade him fetch the Vizier Shimas in all haste. So he betook himself to Shimas and said to him, ‘The king calls for thee, for he hath awoke from his sleep in affright and hath sent me to bring thee to him in haste.’

  When Shimas heard this, he arose forthright and going in to the king, found him seated on his bed. So he prostrated himself before him, wishing him continuance of glory and prosperity, and said, ‘May God not cause thee grieve, O king! What hath troubled thee this night, and what is the cause of thy seeking me thus in haste?’ The king bade him be seated and said to him, ‘I have dreamt this night a dream that terrified me, and it was, that methought I poured water upon the roots of a tree and as I was thus engaged, behold, fire issued therefrom and burnt up all the trees that were about it; wherefore I was affrighted and fear took me. Then I awoke and sent to bid thee to me, because of thy much knowledge and skill in the interpretation of dreams and of that which I know of the extent of thy wisdom and the greatness of thine understanding.’

  The vizier bowed his head awhile and presently raising it, smiled; whereupon the king said to him, ‘What deemest thou, O Shimas? Tell me the truth of the matter and hide nothing from me.’ ‘O king,’ answered Shimas, ‘verily God the Most High granteth thee thy wish and solaceth thine eyes; for the matter of this dream presageth all good, to wit, that God will bless thee with a son, who shall inherit the kingdom from thee, after thy long life. But there is somewhat else that I desire not to expound at this present, seeing that the time is not favourable for its exposition.’ The king rejoiced in this with an exceeding joy and great was his contentment; his trouble ceased from him and he said, ‘If the case be thus of the happy presage of my dream, do thou complete to me its interpretation, when the fitting time cometh: for that which it behoveth not to expound to me now, it behoveth that thou expound to me, when its time cometh, so my joy may be fulfilled, because I seek nought in this but the approof of God, blessed and exalted be He!’

  When the vizier saw that the king was urgent to have the rest of the exposition, he put him off with a pretext; but Jelyaad assembled all the astrologers and interpreters of dreams of his realm and related to them his dream, saying, ‘I desire you to tell me the true interpretation of this.’ Whereupon one of them came forward and craved the king’s leave to speak, which being granted, he said, ‘Know, O king, that thy Vizier Shimas is nowise unable to the interpretation of this thy dream; but he shrank from troubling thy repose: wherefore he expounded not unto thee the whole thereof: but, if thou bid me speak, I will acquaint thee with that which he hid from thee.’ ‘Speak without fear, O interpreter,’ replied Jelyaad, ‘and be truthful in thy speech.’ ‘Know then, O king,’ said the interpreter, ‘that there will be born to thee a son who shall inherit the kingship from thee, after thy long life; but he shall not order himself towards the folk after thy fashion, but shall transgress thine ordinances and oppress thy subjects, and there shall befall him what befell the mouse with the cat.’ ‘I seek refuge with God the Most High!’ exclaimed the king. ‘But what is the story of the cat and the mouse?’ ‘May God prolong the king’s life!’ replied the interpreter. ‘It is related that

  John Payne’s translation: detailed table of contents

  The Cat and the Mouse

  A grimalkin, that is to say, a cat, went out one night to a certain garden, in quest of what she might devour, but found nothing and became weak for the excess of cold and rain that prevailed that night. As she prowled about in search of prey, she espied a nest at the foot of a tree, and drawing near unto it, sniffed and purred about it till she scented a mouse within and went round about it, seeking to enter and take the mouse. When the latter smelt the cat, it turned its back to her and scraped up the earth with its paws, to stop the door against her; whereupon she counterfeited a weak voice and said, “Why dost thou thus, O my brother? I come to seek refuge with thee, hoping that thou wilt take pity on me and shelter me in thy nest this night; for I am weak, because of the greatness of my age and the loss of my strength, and can hardly move. I have ventured into this garden to-night, and how many a time have I prayed for death, that I might be at rest from this misery! Behold, here am I at thy door, prostrate for cold and wet, and I beseech thee, by Allah, take my hand of thy charity and bring me in with thee and give me shelter in the vestibule of thy nest; for I am a stranger and wretched and it is said, ‘Whoso shelters a stranger and a wretched one in his dwelling, his shelter shall be Paradise on the Day of Reckoning.’ And thou, O my brother, it behoves thee to earn a recompense [from God] by succouring me and suffering me abide with thee this night till the morning, when I will go my way.” “How shall I suffer thee enter my nest,” answered the mouse, “seeing that thou art my natural enemy and thy food is of my flesh? Indeed I fear lest thou play me false, for that is of thy nature and there is no faith in thee, and the byword says, ‘It befits not to entrust a whoremonger with a fair woman nor a needy man with money nor fire with firewood.’ Neither doth it behove me to entrust myself to thee; and it is said, ‘Enmity of kind grows stronger, as the enemy himself grows weaker.’”

  The cat made answer in a very faint voice, as she were in the most piteous case, saying, “What thou sayest of admonitory instances is the truth and I deny not my offences against thee; but I beseech thee to forgive that which is past of the enmity of kind between thee and me; for it is said, ‘Whoso forgiveth a creature like himself, his Creator will forgive him his sins.’ It is true that I was thy sometime enemy, but today I am a suitor for thy friendship, and it is said, ‘If thou wilt have thine enemy be thy friend, do with him good.’ O my brother, I swear to thee by Allah and make a binding covenant with thee that I will never do thee hurt, more by token that I have no power unto this; wherefore do thou trust in God and do good and accept my oath and covenant.” “How can I accept the covenant of one between whom and me there is a rooted enmity,” rejoined the mouse, “and whose wont it is to deal treacherously by me? Were the feud between us aught but one of blood, this were easy to me; but it is an enmity of kind between souls, and it is said, ‘He who trusts himself to his enemy is as one who puts his hand into a viper’s mouth.’” Quoth the cat, full of wrath, “My breast is straitened and my soul faints within me: indeed I am in extremity and ere long I shall die at thy door and my blood will be on thy head, for that thou hadst it in thy power to save me: and this is my last word to thee.”

  With this the fear of God the Most High overcame the mouse and pity took hold upon his heart and he said in himself, “Whoso would have the succour of God the Most High against his enemy, let him entreat him with compassion and kindness. I commit myself to God in this matter and will deliver this cat from this her strait and earn the reward [of God] for her.” So he went forth and dragged the cat into his nest, where she abode till she was rested and somewhat restored, when she began to bewail her weakness and loss of strength and lack of friends. The mouse entreated her friendly and comforted her and busied himself with her service; but she crept along till she got command of the issue of the nest, lest the mouse should escape. So, when the latter would have gone out, after his wont, he drew near the cat; whereupon she seized him and taking him in her claws, began to bite him and shake him and take him in her mouth and lift him up and throw him down and run after him and crunch him and torture him.

  The mouse cried out for help, beseeching God of deliverance, and began to upbraid the cat, saying, “Where is the covenant thou madest with me and where are the oaths thou sworest to me? Is this my reward from thee? I brought thee into my nest and trusted myself to thee: but he speaks sooth who says, ‘He who relies on his enemy’s promise desireth not salvation for himself.’ And again, ‘Whoso trusts himself to his enemy merits his own destruction.’ Yet do I put my trust in my Creator, for He will deliver me from thee.’ The cat was about to pounce on him and devour him, when up came a huntsman, with hunting dogs trained to the chase. One of the dogs passed by the mouth of the nest and hearing a great s
cuffing within, thought there was a fox there, tearing somewhat; so he thrust into the hole, to get at him, and coming upon the cat, seized on her. When she found herself in the dog’s clutches, she was forced to take thought to herself and loosed the mouse alive and whole of wound. Then the dog broke her neck and dragging her forth of the hole, threw her down dead: and thus was exemplified the truth of the saying, “He who hath compassion, compassion shall be shown him at the last; and he who oppresseth shall presently be oppressed.”

  This, then, O king,’ added the interpreter, ‘is what befell the cat and the mouse and teaches that none should break faith with those who put trust in him; for whoso doth perfidy and treason, there shall befall him the like of that which befell the cat. As a man meteth, so shall it be meted unto him, and he who betaketh himself unto good shall gain his reward [in the world to come]. But grieve thou not, neither let this trouble thee, O king, for that most like thy son, after his tyranny and oppression, will return to the goodliness of thy policy. And I would that learned man, thy Vizier Shimas, had concealed from thee nought in that which he expounded unto thee; and this had been well-advised of him, for it is said, “Those of the folk who most abound in fear are the amplest of them in knowledge and the most emulous of good.”’