One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  “Eight glories meet, all, all conjoined in thee, *

  Whereby may Fortune aye thy servant be:

  Lere, lordliness, grace, generosity; *

  Plain words, deep meaning, honour, victory!”

  When the King looked upon him, he seated him by his side and said to him, “By Allah, O my son, an thou be not an astrologer, venture not thy life nor comply with my condition; for I have bound myself that whoso goeth in to my daughter and healeth her not of that which hath befallen her I will strike off his head; but whoso healeth her him I will marry to her. So let not thy beauty and loveliness delude thee: for, by Allah! and again, by Allah! If thou cure her not, I will assuredly cut off thy head.” And Kamar al-Zaman replied, “This is thy right; and I consent, for I wot of this ere came I hither.” Then King Ghayur took the Kazis to witness against him and delivered him to the eunuch, saying, “Carry this one to the Lady Budur.” So the eunuch took him by the hand and led him along the passage; but Kamar al-Zaman outstripped him and pushed on before, whilst the eunuch ran after him, saying, “Woe to thee! Hasten not to shine own ruin: never yet saw I astrologer so eager for his proper destruction; but thou weetest not what calamities are before thee.” Thereupon Kamar al-Zaman turned away his face from the eunuch, — And Shah razed perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

  When it was the Two Hundred and Fourth Night,

  She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the eunuch thus addressed Kamar al-Zaman, “Patience, and no indecent hurry!”; the Prince turned away his face and began repeating these couplets,

  “A Sage, I feel a fool before thy charms; *

  Distraught, I wot not what the words I say:

  If say I ‘Sun,’ away thou dost not pass *

  From eyes of me, while suns go down with day:

  Thou hast completed Beauty, in whose praise *

  Speech-makers fail, and talkers lose their way.”

  Then the eunuch stationed Kamar al-Zaman behind the curtain of the Princess’s door and the Prince said to him, “Which of the two ways will please thee more, treat and cure thy lady from here or go in and heal her within the curtain?” The eunuch marvelled at his words and answered, “An thou heal her from here it were better proof of thy skill.” Upon this Kamar al-Zaman sat down behind the curtain and, taking out ink case, pen and paper, wrote the following: “This is the writ of one whom passion swayeth,* and whom longing waylayeth * and wakeful misery slayeth * one who despaireth of living * and looketh for naught but dying * with whose mourning heart * nor comforter nor helper taketh part * One whose sleepless eyes * none succoureth from anxieties * whose day is passed in fire * and his night in torturing desire * whose body is wasted for much emaciation * and no messenger from his beloved bringeth him consolation.” And after this he indited the following couplets,

  “I write with heart devoted to thy thought, *

  And eyelids chafed by tears of blood they bled;

  And body clad, by loving pine and pain, *

  In shirt of leanness, and worn down to thread,

  To thee complain I of Love’s tormentry, *

  Which ousted hapless Patience from her stead:

  A toi! show favour and some mercy deign, *

  For Passion’s cruel hands my vitals shred.”

  And beneath his lines he wrote these cadenced sentences, “The heart’s pain is removed * by union with the beloved * and whomso his lover paineth * only Allah assaineth! * If we or you have wrought deceit * may the deceiver win defeat! * There is naught goodlier than a lover who keeps faith * with the beloved who works him scathe.” Then, by way of subscription, he wrote, “From the distracted and despairing man * whom love and longing trepan * from the lover under passion’s ban * the prisoner of transport and distraction * from this Kamar al-Zaman * son of Shahriman * to the peerless one * of the fair Houris the pearl-union * to the Lady Budur * daughter of King Al Ghayur * Know thou that by night I am sleepless * and by day in distress * consumed with increasing wasting and pain * and longing and love unfain * abounding in sighs * with tear flooded eyes * by passion captive ta’en * of Desire the slain * with heart seared by the parting of us twain * the debtor of longing bane, of sickness cup-companion * I am the sleepless one, who never closeth eye * the slave of love, whose tears run never dry * for the fire of my heart is still burning * and never hidden is the flame of my yearning.” Then on the margin Kamar al-Zaman wrote this admired verse,

  “Salem from graces hoarded by my Lord *

  To her, who holds my heart and soul in hoard!”

  And also these,

  “Pray’ee grant me some words from your lips, belike *

  Such mercy may comfort and cool these eyne:

  From the stress of my love and my pine for you, *

  I make light of what makes me despised, indign:

  Allah guard a folk whose abode was far, *

  And whose secret I kept in the holiest shrine:

  Now Fortune in kindness hath favoured me *

  Thrown on threshold dust of this love o’ mine:

  By me bedded I looked on Budúr, whose sun *

  The moon of my fortunes hath made to shine.”

  Then, having affixed his seal-ring to the missive, he wrote these couplets in the place of address,

  “Ask of my writ what wrote my pen in dole, *

  And hear my tale of misery from this scroll;

  My hand is writing while my tears down flow, *

  And to the paper ‘plains my longing soul:

  My tears cease not to roll upon this sheet, *

  And if they stopped I’d cause blood-gouts to roll.”

  And at the end he added this other verse,

  “I’ve sent the ring from off thy finger bore *

  I when we met, now deign my ring restore!”

  Then Kamar al-Zaman set the Lady Budur’s ring inside the letter and sealed it and gave it to the eunuch, who took it and went in with it to his mistress. — And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

  When it was the Two Hundred and Fifth Night,

  She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Kamar al- Zaman, after setting the seal-ring inside the epistle, gave it to the eunuch who took it and went in with it to his mistress; and, when the Lady Budur opened it, she found therein her own very ring. Then she read the paper and when she understood its purport and knew that it was from her beloved, and that he in person stood behind the curtain, her reason began to fly and her breast swelled for joy and rose high; and she repeated these couplets,

  “Long, long have I bewailed the sev’rance of our loves, *

  With tears that from my lids streamed down like burning

  rain;

  And vowed that, if the days deign reunite us two, *

  My lips should never speak of severance again:

  Joy hath o’erwhelmed me so that, for the very stress *

  Of that which gladdens me to weeping I am fain.

  Tears are become to you a habit, O my eyes, *

  So that ye weep as well for gladness as for pain.’’301

  And having finished her verse, the Lady Budur stood up forthwith and, firmly setting her feet to the wall, strained with all her might upon the collar of iron, till she brake it from her neck and snapped the chains. Then going forth from behind the curtain she threw herself on Kamar al-Zaman and kissed him on the mouth, like a pigeon feeding its young.302 And she embraced him with all the stress of her love and longing and said to him, “O my lord do I wake or sleep and hath the Almighty indeed vouchsafe] us reunion after disunion? Laud be to Allah who hath our loves repaired, even after we despaired!” Now when the eunuch saw her in this case, he went off running to King Ghayur and, kissing the ground before him, said, “O my lord, know that this Astrologer is indeed the Shaykh of all astrologers, who are fools to him, all of them; for verily he hath cured thy daughter while standing behind the curtain and without going in to her.” Quoth the King,
“Look well to it, is this news true?” Answered the eunuch, “O my lord, rise and come and see for thyself how she hath found strength to break the iron chains and is come forth to the Astrologer, kissing and embracing him.” Thereupon the King arose and went in to his daughter who, when she saw him, stood up in haste and covered her head,303 and recited these two couplets,

  “The toothstick love I not; for when I say, *

  ‘Siwák,’304 I miss thee, for it sounds ‘Siwá-ka’.

  The caper-tree I love; for when I say, *

  ‘Arák’305 it sounds I look on thee, ‘Ará-ka.’”

  Thereupon the King was so transported for joy at her recovery that he felt like to fly and kissed her between the eyes, for he loved her with dearest love; then, turning to Kamar al-Zaman, he asked him who he was, and said, “What countryman art thou?” So the Prince told him his name and rank, and informed him that he was the son of King Shahriman, and presently related to him the whole story from beginning to end; and acquainted him with what happened between himself and the Lady Budur; and how he had taken her seal-ring from her finger and had placed it on his own; whereat Ghayur marvelled and said, “Verily your story deserveth in books to be chronicled, and when you are dead and gone age after age be read.” Then he summoned Kazis and witnesses forthright and married the Lady Budur to Prince Kamar al-Zaman; after which he bade decorate the city seven days long. So they spread the tables with all manner of meats, whilst the drums beat and the criers anounced the glad tidings, and all the troops donned their richest clothes; and they illuminated the city and held high festival. Then Kamar al-Zaman went in to the Lady Budur and the King rejoiced in her recovery and in her marriage; and praised Allah for that He had made her to fall in love with a goodly youth of the sons of Kings. So they unveiled her and displayed the bride before the bridegroom; and both were the living likeness of each other in beauty and comeliness and grace and love-allurement. Then Kamar al-Zaman lay with her that night and took his will of her, whilst she in like manner fulfilled her desire of him and enjoyed his charms and grace; and they slept in each other’s arms till the morning. On the morrow, the King made a wedding-feast to which he gathered all comers from the Islands of the Inner and Outer Seas, and he spread the tables with choicest viands nor ceased the banquetting for a whole month. Now when Kamar al-Zaman had thus fulfilled his will and attained his inmost desire, and whenas he had tarried awhile with the Princess Budur, he bethought him of his father, King Shahriman, and saw him in a dream, saying, “O my son, is it thus thou dealest with me?” and recited in the vision these two couplets,

  “Indeed to watch the darkness-moon he blighted me, *

  And to star-gaze through longsome night he plighted me:

  Easy, my heart! for haply he’ll unite with thee; *

  And patience, Sprite! with whatso ills he dight to thee.”

  Now after seeing his father in the dream and hearing his re preaches, Kamar al-Zaman awoke in the morning, afflicted and troubled, whereupon the Lady Budur questioned him and he told her what he had seen. — And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

  When it was the Two Hundred and Sixth Night,

  She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Kamar al-Zaman acquainted the Lady Budur with what he had seen in his dream, she and he went in to her sire and, telling him what had passed, besought his leave to travel. He gave the Prince the permission he sought; but the Princess said, “O my father, I cannot bear to be parted from him.” Quoth Ghayur, her sire, “Then go thou with him,” and gave her leave to be absent a whole twelvemonth and afterwards to visit him in every year once; so she kissed his hand and Kamar al-Zaman did the like. Thereupon King Ghayur proceeded to equip his daughter and her bridegroom for the journey, and furnished them with outfit and appointments for the march; and brought out of his stables horses marked with his own brand, blood-dromedaries306 which can journey ten days without water, and prepared a litter for his daughter, besides loading mules and camels with victual; moreover, he gave them slaves and eunuchs to serve them and all manner of travellinggear; and on the day of departure, when King Ghayur took leave of Kamar al-Zaman, he bestowed on him ten splendid suits of cloth of gold embroidered with stones of price, together with ten riding horses and ten she-camels, and a treasury of money;307 and he charged him to love and cherish his daughter the Lady Budur. Then the King accompanied them to the farthest limits of his Islands where, going in to his daughter Budur in the litter, he kissed her and strained her to his bosom, weeping and repeating,

  “O thou who wooest Severance, easy fare! *

  For love-embrace belongs to lover-friend:

  Fare softly! Fortune’s nature falsehood is, *

  And parting shall love’s every meeting end.”

  Then leaving his daughter, he went to her husband and bade him farewell and kissed him; after which he parted from them and, giving the order for the march he returned to his capital with his troops. The Prince and Princess and their suite fared on without stopping through the first day and the second and the third and the fourth, nor did they cease faring for a whole month till they came to a spacious champaign, abounding in pasturage, where they pitched their tents; and they ate and drank and rested, and the Princess Budur lay down to sleep. Presently, Kamar al-Zaman went in to her and found her lying asleep clad in a shift of apricot-coloured silk that showed all and everything; and on her head was a coif of gold-cloth embroidered with pearls and jewels. The breeze raised her shift which laid bare her navel and showed her breasts and displayed a stomach whiter than snow, each one of whose dimples would contain an ounce of benzoin- ointment.308 At this sight, his love and longing redoubled, and he began reating,

  “An were it asked me when by hell-fire burnt, *

  When flames of heart my vitals hold and hem,

  ‘Which wouldst thou chose, say wouldst thou rather them, *

  Or drink sweet cooling draught?’ I’d answer, ‘Them!’”

  Then he put his hand to the band of her petticoat-trousers and drew it and loosed it, for his soul lusted after her, when he saw a jewel, red as dye-wood, made fast to the band. He untied it and examined it and, seeing two lines of writing graven thereon, in a character not to be read, marvelled and said in his mind, “Were not this bezel something to her very dear she had not bound it to her trousers-band nor hidden it in the most privy and precious place about her person, that she might not be parted from it. Would I knew what she cloth with this and what is the secret that is in it.” So saying, he took it and went outside the tent to look at it in the light, — And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day, and ceased to say her permitted say.

  When it was the Two Hundred and Seventh Night,

  She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when he took the bezel to look at it in the light, the while he was holding it behold, a bird swooped down on him and, snatching the same from his hand, flew off with it and then lighted on the ground. There-upon Kamar al-Zaman fearing to lose the jewel, ran after the bird; but it flew on before him, keeping just out of his reach, and ceased not to draw him on from dale to dale and from hill to hill, till the night starkened and the firmament darkened, when it roosted on a high tree. So Kamar al-Zaman stopped under the tree confounded in thought and faint for famine and fatigue, and giving himself up for lost, would have turned back, but knew not the way whereby he came, for that darkness had overtaken him. Then he exclaimed, “There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious the Great!”; and laying him down under the tree (whereon was the bird) slept till the morning, when he awoke and saw the bird also wake up and fly away. He arose and walked after it, and it flew on little by little before him, after the measure of his faring; at which he smiled and said, “By Allah, a strange thing! Yesterday, this bird flew before me as fast as I could run, and to-day, knowing that I have awoke tired and cannot run, he flieth after the measure of my faring. By Allah, this is wonderful! But I must needs follow this bird whe
ther it lead me to death or to life; and I will go wherever it goeth, for at all events it will not abide save in some inhabited land.309 So he continued to follow the bird which roosted every night upon a tree; and he ceased not pursuing it for a space of ten days, feeding on the fruits of the earth and drinking of its waters. At the end of this time, he came in sight of an inhabited city, whereupon the bird darted off like the glance of the eye and, entering the town, disappeared from Kamar al-Zaman, who knew not what it meant or whither it was gone; so he marvelled at this and exclaimed, “Praise be to Allah who hath brought me in safety to this city!” Then he sat down by a stream and washed his hands and feet and face and rested awhile; and, recalling his late easy and pleasant life of union with his beloved and contrasting it with his present plight of trouble and fatigue and distress and strangerhood and famine and severance, the tears streamed from his eyes and he began repeating these cinquains,

  “Pain had I hid thy handwork, but it showed, *

  Changed sleep for wake, and wake with me abode:

  When thou didst spurn my heart I cried aloud *

  Pate, hold thy hand and cease to gird and goad:

  In dole and danger aye my sprite I spy!

  An but the Lord of Love were just to me, *

  Sleep fro’ my eyelids ne’er were forced to flee.

  Pity, my lady, one for love o’ thee *

  Prom his tribes darling brought to low degree:

  Love came and doomed Wealth beggar-death to die.

  The railers chide at thee: I ne’er gainsay, *

  But stop my ears and dumbly sign them Nay:

  ‘Thou lov’st a slender may,’ say they; I say, *

  ‘I’ve picked her out and cast the rest away:’

  Enough; when Fate descends she blinds man’s

  eye!”310