The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 4 - Sir Richard Francis Burton (robert munsch read aloud txt) 📗

merry Then he filled the cup and, taking it in his hand, said to the blonde girl, ‘O new moon face, let us hear somewhat of thy pleasant songs.’ So she took the lute and tuning it, made music thereon with such sweet melody that the place danced with glee; after which she played a lively measure and sang these couplets, ‘I have a friend, whose form is fixed within mine eyes,[FN#349] *

Whose name deep buried in my very vitals lies: Whenas remembers him my mind all heart am I, * And when on him my gaze is turned I am all eyes.

My censor saith, ‘Forswear, forget, the love of him,’ * ‘Whatso is not to be, how shall’s be?’ My reply is.

Quoth I, ‘O Censor mine, go forth from me, avaunt! * And make not light of that on humans heavy lies.’

 

Hereat their master rejoiced and, drinking off his cup, gave the damsels to drink, after which he said to the berry-brown girl, ‘O

brasier-light[FN#350] and joy of the sprite, let us hear thy lovely voice, whereby all that hearken are ravished with delight.’ So she took the lute and thereon made harmony till the place was moved to glee; then, captivating all hearts with her graceful swaying, she sang these couplets, ‘I swear by that fair face’s life, I’ll love but thee * Till death us part, nor other love but thine I’ll see: O full moon, with thy loveliness mantilla’d o’er, The loveliest of our earth beneath thy banner be: Thou, who surpassest all the fair in pleasantness May Allah, Lord of worlds, be everywhere with thee!’

 

The master rejoiced and drank off his cup and gave the girls to drink; after which he filled again; and, taking the goblet in his hand, signed to the fat girl and bade her sing and play a different motive. So she took the lute and striking a grief-dispelling measure, sang these couplets, ‘An thou but deign consent, O wish to heart affied! * I care not wrath and rage to all mankind betide.

And if thou show that fairest face which gives me life, * I reck not an dimimshed heads the Kings go hide.

I seek thy favours only from this ‘versal-world: * O thou in whom all beauty cloth firm-fixt abide!’

 

The man rejoiced and, emptying his cup, gave the girls to drink.

Then he signed to the thin girl and said to her, ‘O Houri of Paradise, feed thou our ears with sweet words and sounds.’ So she took the lute; and, tuning it, preluded and sang these two couplets,

 

‘Say me, on Allah’s path[FN#351] hast death not dealt to me, *

Turning from me while I to thee turn patiently: Say me, is there no judge of Love to judge us twain, * And do me justice wronged, mine enemy, by thee?’

 

Their lord rejoiced and, emptying the cup, gave the girls to drink. Then filling another he signed to the yellow girl and said to her, O sun of the day, let us hear some nice verses.’ So she took the lute and, preluding after the goodliest fashion, sang these couplets,

 

‘I have a lover and when drawing him, * He draws on me a sword-blade glancing grim:

Allah avenge some little of his wrongs, * Who holds my heart yet wreaks o erbearing whim

Oft though I say, ‘Renounce him, heart!’ yet heart * Will to none other turn excepting him.

He is my wish and will of all men, but * Fate’s envious hand to me’s aye grudging him.’

 

The master rejoiced and drank and gave the girls to drink; then he filled the cup and taking it in hand, signed to the black girl, saying, ‘O pupil of the eye, let us have a taste of thy quality, though it be but two words.’ So she took the lute and tuning it and tightening the strings, preluded in various modes, then returned to the first and sang to a lively air these couplets,

 

‘Ho ye, mine eyes, let prodigal-tears go free; * This ecstasy would see my being unbe:[FN#352]

All ecstasies I dreefor sake of friend * I fondle, maugre enviers’ jealousy:

Censors forbid me from his rosy cheek, * Yet e’er inclines my heart to rosery:

Cups of pure wine, time was, went circuiting * In joy, what time the lute sang melody,

While kept his troth the friend who madded me, * Yet made me rising star of bliss to see:

But—with Time, turned he not by sin of mine; * Than such a turn can aught more bitter be?

Upon his cheek there grows and glows a rose, * Nay two, whereof grant Allah one to me!

An were prostration[FN#353] by our law allowed * To aught but Allah, at his feet I had bowed.’

 

Thereupon rose the six girls and, kissing the ground before their lord, said to him, ‘Do thou justice between us, O our lord!’ So he looked at their beauty and loveliness and the contrast of their colours and praised Almighty Allah and glorified Him. Then said he, ‘There is none of you but hath learnt the Koran by heart, and mastered the musical-art and is versed in the chronicles’ of yore and the doings of peoples which have gone before; so it is my desire that each one of you rise and, pointing finger at her opposite, praise herself and dispraise her co-concubine; that is to: say, let the blonde point to the brunette, the plump to the slenderer and the yellow to the black girl; after which the rivals, each in her turn, shall do the like with the former; and be this illustrated with citations from Holy Writ and somewhat of anecdotes and,; verse, so as to show forth your fine breeding and elegance of your pleading.’ And they answered him, ‘We hear and we obey!;”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

 

When it was the Three Hundred and Thirty-fifth Night, She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the handmaids answered the man of Al-Yaman, “‘We hear and we obey!’

Accordingly the blonde rose first and, pointing at the black girl, said to her: ‘Out on thee, blackamoor! It is told by tradition that whiteness saith, ‘I am the shining light, I am the rising moon of the fourteenth night. My hue is patent and my brow is resplendent and of my beauty quoth the poet,’

 

‘White girl with softly rounded polished cheeks * As if a pearl concealed by Beauty’s boon:

Her stature Alif-like;[FN#354] her smile like M�m[FN#355] * And o’er her eyes two brows that bend like N�n.[FN#356]

‘Tis as her glance were arrow, and her brows * Bows ever bent to shoot Death-dart eftsoon:

If cheek and shape thou view, there shalt thou find * Rose, myrtle, basil and Narcissus wone.

Men wont in gardens plant and set the branch, * How many garths thy stature-branch cloth own!’

 

‘So my colour is like the hale and healthy day and the newly culled orange spray and the star of sparkling ray;[FN#357] and indeed quoth Almighty Allah, in His precious Book, to his prophet Moses (on whom be peace!), Put thy hand into thy bosom; it shall come forth white, without hurt.’[FN#358] And again He saith, But they whose faces shall become white, shall be in the mercy of Allah; therein shall they remain forever.’[FN#359] My colour is a sign, a miracle, and my loveliness supreme and my beauty a term extreme. It is on the like of me that raiment showeth fair and fine and to the like of me that hearts incline. Moreover, in whiteness are many excellences; for instance, the snow falleth white from heaven, and it is traditional-that the beautifullest of a colours white. The Moslems also glory in white turbands, but I should be tedious, were I to tell all that may be told in praise of white; little and enough is better than too much of unfilling stuff. So now I will begin with thy dispraise, O black, O colour of ink and blacksmith’s dust, thou whose face is like the raven which bringeth about the parting of lovers. Verily, the poet saith in praise of white and blame of black, ‘Seest not that pearls are prized for milky hue, * But with a dirham buy we coals in load?

And while white faces enter Paradise, * Black faces crowd Gehenna’s black abode.’

 

And indeed it is told in certain histories, related on the authority of devout men, that Noah (on whom be peace!) was sleeping one day, with his sons Cham and Shem seated at his head, when a wind sprang up and, lifting his clothes, uncovered his nakedness; whereat Cham looked and laughed and did not cover him: but Shem arose and covered him. Presently, their sire awoke and learning, what had been done by his sons, blessed Shem and cursed Cham. So Shem’s face was whitened and from him sprang the prophets and the orthodox Caliphs and Kings; whilst Cham’s face was blackened and he fled forth to the land of Abyssinia, and of his lineage came the blacks.[FN#360] All people are of one mind in affirming the lack of understanding of the blacks, even as saith the adage, ‘How shall one find a black with a mind?’ Quoth her master, ‘Sit thee down, thou hast given us sufficient and even excess.’ Thereupon he signed to the negress, who rose and, pointing her finger at the blonde, said: Dost thou not know that in the Koran sent down to His prophet and apostle, is transmitted the saying of God the Most High, ‘By the night when it covereth all things with darkness; by the day when it shineth forth!’[FN#361] If the night were not the more illustrious, verily Allah had not sworn by it nor had given it precedence of the day. And indeed all men of wit and wisdom accept this.

Knowest thou not that black is the ornament of youth and that, when hoariness descendeth upon the head, delights pass away and the hour of death draweth in sight? Were not black the most illustrious of things, Allah had not set it in the core of the heart[FN#362] and the pupil of the eye; and how excellent is the saying of the poet,

 

‘I love not black girls but because they show Youth’s colour, tinct of eye and heartcore’s hue; Nor are in error who unlove the white, And hoary hairs and winding-sheet eschew.’

 

And that said of another,

 

‘Black[FN#363] girls, not white, are they * All worthy love I see:

Black girls wear dark-brown lips;[FN#364] * Whites, blotch of leprosy.’

 

And of a third,

 

‘Black girls in acts are white, and ‘tis as though Like eyes, with purest shine and sheen they show; If I go daft for her, be not amazed; Black bile[FN#365] drives melancholic-mad we know

‘Tis as my colour were the noon of night; * For all no moon it be, its splendours glow.

 

Moreover, is the foregathering of lovers good but in the night?

Let this quality and profit suffice thee. What protecteth lovers from spies and censors like the blackness of night’s darkness; and what causeth them to fear discovery like the whiteness of the dawn’s brightness? So, how many claims to honour are there not in blackness and how excellent is the saying of the poet, ‘I visit them, and night-black lendeth aid to me * Seconding love, but dawn-white is mine enemy.’

 

And that of another,

 

‘How many a night I’ve passed with the beloved of me, While gloom with dusky tresses veil�d our desires: But when the morn-light showed it caused me sad affright;