One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  When It was the One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Night,

  She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Nuzhat Al-Zaman related to her husband the sad case of the widow of her brother, Zau al-Makan, the Chamberlain said, “Entreat her honourably and enrich her poverty.” Thus far concerning Nuzhat al-Zaman and her consort and the relict of Zau al-Makan; but as regards Kanmakan and his cousin Kuzia Fakan, they grew up and flourished till they waxed like unto two fruit-laden boughs or two shining moons; and they reached the age of fifteen. And she was indeed the fairest of maids who are modestly veiled, lovely faced with smooth cheeks graced, and slender waist on heavy hips based; and her shape was the shaft’s thin line and her lips were sweeter than old wine and the nectar of her mouth as it were the fountain Salsabíl65 ; even as saith the poet in these two couplets describing one like her,

  “As though ptisane of wine on her lips honey dew *

  Dropt from the ripened grapes her mouth in clusters grew

  And, when her frame thou doublest, and low bends her vine, *

  Praise her Creator’s might no creature ever knew.”

  Of a truth Allah had united in her every charm: her shape would shame the branch of waving tree and the rose before her cheeks craved lenity; and the honey dew of her lips of wine made jeer, however old and clear, and she gladdened heart and beholder with joyous cheer, even as saith of her the poet,

  “Goodly of gifts is she, and charm those perfect eyes, *

  With lashes shaming Kohl and all the fair ones Kohl’d66

  And from those eyne the glances pierce the lover’s heart, *

  Like sword in Mír al-Muminína Ali’s hold.”

  And (the relator continueth) as for Kanmakan, he became unique in loveliness and excelling in perfection no less; none could even him in qualities as in seemliness and the sheen of velour between his eyes was espied, testifying for him while against him it never testified. The hardest hearts inclined to his side; his eyelids bore lashes black as by Kohl; and he was of surpassing worth in body and soul. And when the down of lips and cheeks began to sprout bards and poets sang for him far and near,

  “Appeared not my excuse till hair had clothed his cheek, *

  And gloom o’ercrept that side-face (sight to stagger!)

  A fawn, when eyes would batten on his charms, *

  Each glance deals thrust like point of Khanjar-dagger.”

  And saith another,

  “His lovers’ souls have drawn upon his cheek *

  An ant that perfected its rosy light:

  I marvel at such martyrs Lazá-pent *

  Who yet with greeny robes of Heaven are dight.’’67

  Now it chanced one holiday, that Kuzia Fakan fared forth to make festival with certain kindred of the court, and she went surrounded by her handmaids. And indeed beauty encompassed her, the roses of her cheeks dealt envy to their mole; from out her smiling lips levee flashed white, gleaming like the chamomile68 ; and Kanmakan began to turn about her and devour her with his sight, for she was the moon of resplendent light. Then he took heart and giving his tongue a start began to improvise,

  “When shall the disappointed heart be healed of severance, *

  And lips of Union smile at ceasing of our hard mischance?

  Would Heaven I knew shall come some night, and with it surely

  bring * Meeting with friend who like myself endureth

  sufferance.”69

  When Kuzia Fakan heard these couplets, she showed vexation and disapproval and, putting on a haughty and angry air, said to him, “Dost thou name me in thy verse, to shame me amongst folk? By Allah, if thou turn not from this talk, I will assuredly complain of thee to the Grand Chamberlain, Sultan of Khorasan and Baghdad and lord of justice and equity; that disgrace and punishment may befal thee!” Kanmakan made no reply for anger but he returned to Baghdad; and Kuzia Fakan also returned to her palace and complained of her cousin to her mother, who said to her, “O my daughter, haply he meant thee no harm, and is he aught but an orphan? Withal, he said nought of reproach to thee; so beware thou tell none of this, lest perchance it come to e Sultan’s ears and he cut short his life and blot out his name and make it even as yesterday, whose memory hath passed away.” However, Kanmakan’s love for Kuzia Fakan spread abroad in Baghdad, so that the women talked of it. Moreover, his breast became straitened and his patience waned and he knew not what to do, yet he could not hide his condition from the world. Then longed he to give vent to the pangs he endured, by reason of the lowe of separation; but he feared her rebuke and her wrath; so he began improvising,

  “Now is my dread to incur reproaches, which *

  Disturb her temper and her mind obscure,

  Patient I’ll bear them; e’en as generous youth his case to

  cure.’’ * Beareth the burn of brand his case to

  cure.”70

  And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

  When it was the One Hundred and Thirty-ninth Night,

  She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Grand Chamberlain became Sultan they named him King Sásán; and after he had assumed the throne he governed the people in righteous way. Now as he was giving audience one day, Kanmakan’s verses came to his knowledge. Thereupon he repented him of the past and going in to his wife Nuzhat al-Zaman, said to her, “Verily, to join Halfah grass and fire,71 is the greatest of risks, and man may not be trusted with woman, so long as eye glanceth and eyelid quivereth. Now thy brother’s son, Kanmakan, is come to man’s estate and it behoveth us to forbid him access to the rooms where anklets trinkle, and it is yet more needful to forbid thy daughter the company of men, for the like of her should be kept in the Harim.” Replied she, “Thou sayest sooth, O wise King!” Next day came Kanmakan according to his wont; and, going in to his aunt saluted her. She returned his salutation and said to him, “O my son! I have some what to say to thee which I would fain leave unsaid; yet I must tell it thee despite my inclination.” Quoth he, “Speak;” and quoth she, Know then that thy sire the Chamberlain, the father of Kuzia Fakan, hath heard of the verses thou madest anent her, and hath ordered that she be kept in the Harim and out of thy reach; if therefore, O my son, thou want anything from us, I will send it to thee from behind the door; and thou shalt not look upon Kuzia Fakan nor shalt thou return hither from this day forth.” When he heard this he arose and withdrew with out speaking a single word; and, betaking himself to his mother related what his aunt had said. She observed, “This all cometh of thine overtalking. Thou knowest that the news of thy passion for Kuzia Fakan is noised abroad and the tattle hath spread everywhere how thou eatest their food and thereafter thou courtest their daughter.” Rejoined he, “And who should have her but I? She is the daughter of my father’s brother and I have the best of rights to her.” Retorted his mother, “These are idle words. Be silent, lest haply thy talk come to King Sasan’s ears and it prove the cause of thy losing her and the reason of thy ruin and increase of thine affliction. They have not sent us any supper to-night and we shall die an hungered; and were we in any land but this, we were already dead of famine or of shame for begging our bread.” When Kanmakan heard these words from his mother, his regrets redoubled; his eyes ran over with tears and he complained and began improvising,

  “Minish this blame I ever bear from you: *

  My heart loves her to whom all love is due:

  Ask not from me of patience jot or little, *

  Divorce of Patience by God’s House! I rue:

  What blamers preach of patience I unheed; *

  Here am I, love path firmly to pursue!

  Indeed they bar me access to my love, *

  Here am I by God’s ruth no ill I sue!

  Good sooth my bones, whenas they hear thy name, *

  Quail as birds quailed when Nisus o’er them flew:72

  Ah! say to them who blame my love that I *

  Will love that face fair cousin till I die.”

  And w
hen he had ended his verses he said to his mother, “I have no longer a place in my aunt’s house nor among these people, but I will go forth from the palace and abide in the corners of the city.” So he and his mother left the court; and, having sought an abode in the neighbourhood of the poorer sort, there settled; but she used to go from time to time to King Sasan’s palace and thence take daily bread for herself and her son. As this went on Kuzia Fakan took her aside one day and said to her, “Alas, O my naunty, how is it with thy son?” Replied she, “O my daughter, sooth to say, he is tearful-eyed and heavy hearted, being fallen into the net of thy love.” And she repeated to her the couplets he had made; whereupon Kuzia Fakan wept and said, “By Allah! I rebuked him not for his words, nor for ill-will to him, but because I feared for him the malice of foes. Indeed my passion for him is double that he feeleth for me; my tongue may not describe my yearning for him; and were it not for the extravagant wilfulness of his words and the wanderings of his wit, my father had not cut off from him favours that besit, nor had decreed unto him exclusion and prohibition as fit. However, man’s days bring nought but change, and patience in all case is most becoming: peradventure He who ordained our severance will vouchsafe us reunion!” And she began versifying in these two couplets,

  “O son of mine uncle! same sorrow I bear, *

  And suffer the like of thy cark and thy care

  Yet hide I from man what I suffer for pine; *

  Hide it too, and such secret to man never bare!”

  When his mother heard this from her, she thanked her and blessed her: then she left her and acquainted her son with what she had said; whereupon his desire for her increased and he took heart, being eased of his despair and the turmoil of his love and care. And he said, “By Allah, I desire none but her!”; and he began improvising,

  “Leave this blame, I will list to no flout of my foe! *

  I divulged a secret was told me to keep:

  He is lost to my sight for whose union I yearn, *

  And I watch all the while he can slumber and sleep.”

  So the days and nights went by whilst Kanmakan lay tossing upon coals of fire,73 till he reached the age of seventeen; and his beauty had waxt perfect and his wits were at their brightest. One night, as he lay awake, he communed with himself and said, “Why should I keep silence till I waste away and see not my lover? Fault have I none save poverty; so, by Allah, I am resolved to remove me from this region and wander over the wild and the word; for my position in this city is a torture and I have no friend nor lover therein to comfort me; wherefore I am determined to distract myself by absence from my native land till I die and take my rest after this shame and tribulation.” And he began to improvise and recited these couplets,

  “Albeit my vitals quiver ‘neath this ban; *

  Before the foe myself I’ll ne’er unman!

  So pardon me, my vitals are a writ *

  Whose superscription are my tears that ran:

  Heigh ho! my cousin seemeth Houri may *

  Come down to earth by reason of Rizwan:

  ‘Scapes not the dreadful sword lunge of her look *

  Who dares the glancing of those eyne to scan:

  O’er Allah’s wide spread world I’ll roam and roam, *

  And from such exile win what bread I can

  Yes, o’er broad earth I’ll roam and save my soul, *

  All but her absence bear ing like a man

  With gladsome heart I’ll haunt the field of fight, *

  And meet the bravest Brave in battle van!”

  So Kanmakan fared forth from the palace barefoot and he walked in a short sleeved gown, wearing on his head a skull cap of felt74 seven years old and carrying a scone three days stale, and in the deep glooms of night betook himself to the portal of al-Arij of Baghdad. Here he waited for the gate being opened and when it was opened, he was the first to pass through it; and he went out at random and wandered about the wastes night and day. When the dark hours came, his mother sought him but found him not; whereupon the world waxt strait upon her for all that it was great and wide, and she took no delight in aught of weal it supplied. She looked for him a first day and a second day and a third day till ten days were past, but no news of him reached her. Then her breast became contracted and she shrieked and shrilled, saying, “O my son! O my darling! thou hast revived my regrets. Sufficed not what I endured, but thou must depart from my home? After thee I care not for food nor joy in sleep, and naught but tears and mourning are left me. O my son, from what land shall I call thee? And what town hath given thee refuge?” Then her sobs burst out, and she began repeating these couplets,

  “Well learnt we, since you left, our grief and sorrow to

  sustain, * While bows of severance shot their shafts in

  many a railing rain:

  They left me, after girthing on their selles of corduwayne *

  To fight the very pangs of death while spanned they sandy

  plain:

  Mysterious through the nightly gloom there came the moan of

  dove; * A ring dove, and replied I, ‘Cease thy plaint, how

  durst complain?’

  If, by my life, her heart, like mine, were full of pain and

  pine * She had not decks her neck with ring nor sole with

  ruddy stain.75

  Fled is mine own familiar friend, bequeathing me a store *

  Of parting pang and absence ache to suffer evermore.”

  Then she abstained from food and drink and gave herself up to excessive tear shedding and lamentation. Her grief became public property far and wide and all the people of the town and country side wept with her and cried, “Where is thine eye, O Zau al- Makan?” And they bewailed the rigours of Time, saying, “Would Heaven we knew what hath befallen Kanmakan that he fled his native town, and chased himself from the place where his father used to fill all in hungry case and do justice and grace?” And his mother redoubled her weeping and wailing till the news of Kanmakan’s departure came to King Sasan. — And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

  When it was the One Hundred and Fortieth Night,

  She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that came to King Sasan the tidings of the departure of Kanmakan, through the Chief Emirs who said to him, “Verily he is the son of our Sovran and the seed of King Omar bin al-Nu’uman and it hath reached us that he hath exiled himself from the land.” When King Sasan heard these words, he was wroth with them and ordered one of them to be hanged by way of silencing him, whereat the fear of him fell upon the hearts of all the other Grandees and they dared not speak one word. Then he called to mind all the kindness that Zau al-Makan had done him, and how he had charged him with the care of his son; wherefore he grieved for Kanmakan and said, “Needs must I have search made for him in all countries.” So he summoned Tarkash and bade him choose an hundred horse and wend with them in quest of the Prince. Accordingly he went out and was absent ten days, after which he returned and said, “I can learn no tidings of him and have hit on no trace of him, nor can any tell me aught of him.” Upon this King Sasan repented him of that which he had done by the Prince; whilst his mother abode in unrest continual nor would patience come at her call: and thus passed over her twenty days in heaviness all. This is how it fared with these; but as regards Kanmakan, when he left Baghdad, he went forth perplexed about his case and knowing not whither he should go: so he fared on alone through the desert for three days and saw neither footman nor horseman; withal, his sleep fled and his wakefulness redoubled, for he pined after his people and his homestead. He ate of the herbs of the earth and drank of its flowing waters and siesta’d under its trees at hours of noontide heats, till he turned from that road to another way and, following it other three days, came on the fourth to a land of green leas, dyed with the hues of plants and trees and with sloping valley sides made to please, abounding with the fruits of the earth. It had drunken of the cups of the cloud, to the sound of thunders rolling loud and the so
ng of the turtle-dove gently sough’d, till its hill slopes were brightly verdant and its fields were sweetly fragrant. Then Kanmakan recalled his father’s city Baghdad, and for excess of emotion he broke out into verse,

  “I roam, and roaming hope I to return; *

  Yet of returning see not how or when:

  I went for love of one I could not win, *

  Nor way of ‘scaping ills that pressed could ken.”

  When he ended his recital he wept, but presently he wiped away his tears and ate of the fruits of the earth enough for his present need. Then he made the Wuzu-ablution and prayed the ordained prayers which he had neglected all this time; and he sat resting in that place through the livelong day. When night came he slept and ceased not sleeping till midnight, when he awoke and heard a human voice declaiming these couplets,

  “What’s life to me, unless I see the pearly sheen *

  Of teeth I love, and sight that glorious mien?

  Pray for her Bishops who in convents reign, *

  Vying to bow before that heavenly queen.

  And Death is lighter than the loved one’s wrath, *

  Whose phantom haunts me seen in every scene:

  O joy of cup companions, when they meet, *

  And loved and lover o’er each other lean!

  E’en more in time of spring, the lord of flowers, *

  When fragrant is the world with bloom and green:

  Drainer of vine-juice! up wi’ thee, for now *

  Earth is a Heaven where sweet waters flow.76 “