Supplemental Nights to The Book of the Thousand and One Nights - Sir Richard Francis Burton (great books of all time .TXT) 📗

nay, I want wine, the solace of the soul, so haply, O Shaykh, I may refresh myself therewith.” Exclaimed the old man, “Allah forfend that strong drink be drunk in my house, and I a stranger in the land and a Muezzin and an Imam, who leadeth the True Believers in prayer, and a servant of the House of the Lord of the three Worlds!” “Why wilt thou forbid me to drink thereof in thy house?” “Because ‘tis unlawful.” “O

elder, Allah hath forbidden only the eating of blood and carrion[FN#320] and hog’s flesh: tell me, are grapes and honey lawful or unlawful?” “They are lawful.” “This is the juice of grapes and the water of honey.” “Leave this thy talk, for thou shalt never drink wine in my house.” “O Shaykh, people eat and drink and enjoy themselves and we are of the number of the folk and Allah is indulgent and merciful.”[FN#321] “This is a thing that may not be.” “Hast thou not heard what the poet saith?” And she recited these couplets,

 

“Cease thou to hear, O Sim’�n-son,[FN#322] aught save the say of me; * How bitter ‘twas to quit the monks and fly the monast’ry!

When, on the F�te of Palms there stood, amid the hallowed fane,[FN#323] * A pretty Fawn whose lovely pride garred me sore wrong to dree.

May Allah bless the night we spent when he to us was third, *

While Moslem, Jew, and Nazarene all sported fain and free.

Quoth he, from out whose locks appeared the gleaming of the morn, * ‘Sweet is the wine and sweet the flowers that joy us comrades three.

The garden of the garths of Khuld where roll and rail amain, *

Rivulets ‘neath the myrtle shade and B�n’s fair branchery; And birds make carol on the boughs and sing in blithest lay, *

Yea, this indeed is life, but, ah! how soon it fades away.’”

 

She then asked him, “O Shaykh, an Moslems and Jews and Nazarenes drink wine, who are we that we should reject it?” Answered he, “By Allah, O my lady, spare thy pains, for this be a thing whereto I will not hearken.” When she knew that he would not consent to her desire, she said to him, “O Shaykh, I am of the slavegirls of the Commander of the Faithful and the food waxeth heavy on me and if I drink not, I shall die of indigestion, nor wilt thou be assured against the issue of my case.[FN#324] As for me, I acquit myself of blame towards thee, for that I have bidden thee beware of the wrath of the Commander of the Faithful, after making myself known to thee.” When the Shaykh heard her words and that wherewith she threatened him, he sprang up and went out, perplexed and unknowing what he should do, and there met him a Jewish man, which was his neighbour, and said to him, “How cometh it that I see thee, O Shaykh, strait of breast? Eke, I hear in thy house a noise of talk, such as I am unwont to hear with thee.” Quoth the Muezzin, “‘Tis of a damsel who declareth that she is of the slavegirls of the Commander of the Faithful, Harun al-Rashid; and she hath eaten meat and now would drink wine in my house, but I forbade her. However she asserteth that unless she drink thereof, she will die, and indeed I am bewildered concerning my case.” Answered the Jew, “Know, O my neighbour, that the slavel-girls of the Commander of the Faithful are used to drink wine, and when they eat and drink not, they die; and I fear lest happen some mishap to her, when thou wouldst not be safe from the Caliph’s fury.” The Shaykh asked, “What is to be done?” and the Jew answered, “I have old wine that will suit her.” Quoth the Shaykh, “By the right of neighbourship, deliver me from this descent[FN#325] of calamity and let me have that which is with thee!” Quoth the Jew, “Bismillah, in the name of Allah,” and passing to his quarters, brought out a glass flask of wine, wherewith the Shaykh returned to Sitt al-Milah. This pleased her and she cried to him, “Whence hadst thou this?” He replied, “I got it from the Jew, my neighbour: I set forth to him my case with thee and he gave me this.” Thereupon Sitt al-Milah filled a cup and emptied it; after which she drank a second and a third. Then she crowned the cup a fourth time and handed it to the Shaykh, but he would not accept it from her. However, she conjured him, by her own head and that of the Prince of True Believers, that he take the cup from her, till he received it from her hand and kissed it and would have set it down; but she sware him by her life to smell it. Accordingly he smelt it and she said to him, “How deemest thou?” Said he, “I find its smell is sweet;” and she conjured him by the Caliph’s life to taste thereof. So he put it to his mouth and she rose to him and made him drink; whereupon quoth be, “O Princess of the Fair,[FN#326]

this is none other than good.” Quoth she, “So deem I: hath not our Lord promised us wine in Paradise?” He answered, “Yes! The Most High saith, ‘And rivers of wine, delicious to the drinkers.’[FN#327] And we will drink it in this world and in the next world.” She laughed and emptying the cup, gave him to drink, and he said, “O Princess of the Fair, indeed thou art excusable in thy love for this.” Then he bent in hand from her another and another, till he became drunken and his talk waxed great and his prattle. The folk of the quarter heard him and assembled under the window; and when the Shaykh was ware of them, he opened the window and said to them, “Are ye not ashamed, O pimps? Every one in his own house doth whatso he willeth and none hindereth him; but we drink one single day and ye assemble and come, panders that ye are! To-day, wine, and tomorrow business;[FN#328] and from hour to hour cometh relief.” So they laughed together and dispersed. Then the girl drank till she was drunken, when she called to mind her lord and wept, and the Shaykh said to her, “What maketh thee weep, O my lady?” Said she, “O elder, I am a lover and a separated.” He cried, “O my lady, what is this love?”

Cried she, “And thou, hast thou never been in love?” He replied, “By Allah, O my lady, never in all my life heard I of this thing, nor have I ever known it! Is it of the sons of Adam or of the Jinn?” She laughed and said, “Verily, thou art even as those of whom the poet speaketh, in these couplets, “How oft shall they admonish and ye shun this nourishment; * When e’en the shepherd’s bidding is obey�d by his flocks?

I see you like in shape and form to creatures whom we term *

Mankind, but in your acts and deeds you are a sort of ox”[FN#329]

 

The Shaykh laughed at her speech and her verses pleased him. Then cried she to him, “I desire of thee a lute.” So he arose and brought her a bit of fuel.[FN#330] Quoth she, “What is that?” and quoth he “Didst thou not say: Bring me fuel?” Said she, “I do not want this,” and said he, “What then is it that is hight fuel, other than this?” She laughed and replied, “The lute is an instrument of music, whereunto I sing.” Asked he, “Where is this thing found and of whom shall I get it for thee?” and answered she, “Of him who gave thee the wine.” So he arose and betaking himself to his neighbour the Jew, said to him, “Thou favouredst us before with the wine; so now complete thy favours and look me out a thing hight lute, which be an instrument for singing; for she seeketh this of me and I know it not.” Replied the Jew, “Hearkening and obedience,” and going into his house, brought him a lute. The old man carried it to Sitt al-Milah, whilst the Jew took his drink and sat by a window adjoining the Shaykh’s house, so he might hear the singing. The damsel rejoiced, when the old man returned to her with the lute, and taking it from him, tuned its strings and sang these couplets, “Remains not, after you are gone, or trace of you or sign, But hope to see this parting end and break its lengthy line: You went and by your wending made the whole world desolate; And none may stand this day in stead to fill the yearning eyne.

Indeed, you’ve burdened weakling me, by strength and force of you * With load no hill hath power t’upheave nor yet the plain low li’en:

And I, whenever fain I scent the breeze your land o’erbreathes, *

Lose all my wits as though they were bemused with heady wine.

O folk no light affair is Love for lover woe to dree * Nor easy ‘tis to satisfy its sorrow and repine.

I’ve wandered East and West to hap upon your trace, and when *

Spring-camps I find the dwellers cry, ‘They’ve marched, those friends o’ thine!’

Never accustomed me to part these intimates I love; * Nay, when I left them all were wont new meetings to design.”

 

Now when she had ended her song, she wept with sore weeping, till presently sleep overcame her and she slept. On the morrow, she said to the Shaykh, “Get thee to the Shroff and fetch me the ordinary;” so he repaired to the money-changer and delivered him the message, whereupon he made ready meat and drink, according to his custom, with which the old man returned to the damsel and they ate their sufficiency. When she had eaten, she sought of him wine and he went to the Jew and fetched it. Then the twain sat down and drank; and when she waxed drunken, she took the lute and smiting it, fell asinging and chanted these couplets, “How long ask I the heart, the heart drowned, and eke * Refrain my complaint while I my tear-floods speak?

They forbid e’en the phantom to visit me, * (O marvel!) her phantom my couch to seek.”[FN#331]

 

And when she had made an end of her song, she wept with sore weeping. All this time, the young Damascene was listening, and now he likened her voice to the voice of his slavegirl and then he put away from him this thought, and the damsel had no knowledge whatever of his presence. Then she broke out again into song and chanted these couplets,

 

“Quoth they, ‘Forget him! What is he?’ To them I cried, * ‘Allah forget me when forget I mine adored!’

Now in this world shall I forget the love o’ you? * Heaven grant the thrall may ne’er forget to love his lord!

I pray that Allah pardon all except thy love * Which, when I meet Him may my bestest plea afford.”

 

After ending this song she drank three cups and filling the old man other three, improvised these couplets, “His love he hid which tell-tale tears betrayed; For burn of coal that ‘neath his ribs was laid: Giv’n that he seek his joy in spring and flowers Some day, his spring’s the face of dear-loved maid.

O ye who blame me for who baulks my love! * What sweeter thing than boon to man denayed?

A sun, yet scorcheth he my very heart! * A moon, but riseth he from breasts a-shade!”