The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 8 - Sir Richard Francis Burton (best e reader for epub .TXT) 📗

whereupon the King gathered together all the farriers in the city to treat him; but they all failed of his cure. Presently the Wazir came into the King; and finding him troubled because of the horse, thought to do away his concern and said to him, “O King, give me the stallion and I will cure him,” The King consented and caused carry the horse to the stable wherein Nur al-Din lay chained; but, when he missed his brother, he cried out with an exceeding great cry and neighed, so that he affrighted all the folk. The Wazir, seeing that he did thus but because he was parted from his brother, went to tell the King, who said, “If this, which is but a beast, cannot brook to be parted from his brother, how should it be with those that have reason?” And he bade his grooms take the other horse and put him with his brother in the Wazir’s stables, saying, “Tell the Minister that the two stallions be a gift from me to him, for the sake of my daughter Miriam.” Nur al-Din was lying in the stable, chained and shackled, when they brought in the two stallions and he saw that one of them had a film over his eyes. Now he had some knowledge of horses and of the doctoring of their diseases; so he said to himself, “This by Allah is my opportunity! I will go to the Wazir and lie to him, saying, ‘I will heal thee this horse’: then will I do with him somewhat that shall destroy his eyes, and he will slay me and I shall be at rest from this woe-full life.”

So he waited till the Wazir entered the stable, to look upon the steed, and said to him, “O my lord, what will be my due, an I heal this horse, and make his eyes whole again?” Replied the Wazir, “As my head liveth, an thou cure him, I will spare thy life and give thee leave to crave a boon of me!” And Nur al-Din said, “O my lord, bid my hands be unbound!” So the Wazir bade unbind him and he rose and taking virgin glass,[FN#554] brayed it and mixed it with unslaked lime and a menstruum of onion-juice.

Then he applied the whole to the horse’s eyes and bound them up, saying in himself, “Now will his eyes be put out and they will slay me and I shall be at rest from this woe-full life.” Then he passed the night with a heart free from the uncertainty[FN#555]

of cark and care, humbling himself to Allah the Most High and saying, “O Lord, in Thy knowledge is that which dispenseth with asking and craving!” Now when the morning morrowed and the sun shone, the Wazir came to the stable and, loosing the bandage from the horse’s eyes considered them and found them finer than before, by the ordinance of the King who openeth evermore. So he said to Nur al-Din, “O Moslem, never in the world saw I the like of thee for the excellence of thy knowledge. By the virtue of the Messiah and the Faith which is no liar, thou makest me with wonder to admire, for all the farriers of our land have failed to heal this horse!” Then he went up to Nur al-Din and, doing off his shackles with his own hand, clad him in a costly dress and made him his master of the Horse; and he appointed him stipends and allowances and lodged him in a story over the stables. So Nur al-Din abode awhile, eating and drinking and making merry and bidding and forbidding those who tended the horses; and whoso neglected or failed to fodder those tied up in the stable wherein was his service, he would thrown down and beat with grievous beating and lay him by the legs in bilboes of iron. Furthermore, he used every day to descend and visit the stallions and rub them down with his own hand, by reason of that which he knew of their value in the Wazir’s eyes and his love for them; wherefore the Minister rejoiced in him with joy exceeding and his breast broadened and he was right glad, unknowing what was to be the issue of his case. Now in the new palace, which the one-eyed Wazir had bought for Princess Miriam, was a lattice-window overlooking his old house and the flat wherein Nur al-Din lodged.

The Wazir had a daughter, a virgin of extreme loveliness, as she were a fleeing gazelle or a bending branchlet, and it chanced that she sat one day at the lattice aforesaid and behold, she heard Nur al-Din, singing and solacing himself under his sorrows by improvising these verses,

 

“O my Censor who wakest a-morn to see * The joys of life and its jubilee!

Had the fangs of Destiny bitten thee * In such bitter case thou hadst pled this plea,

‘Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!’

But from Fate’s despight thou art safe this day;- * From her falsest fay and her crying ‘Nay!’

Yet blame him not whom his woes waylay * Who distraught shall say in his agony,

‘Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!’

Excuse such lovers in flight abhorr’d * Nor to Love’s distreses thine aid afford:

Lest thy self be bound by same binding cord * And drink of Love’s bitterest injury.

‘Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!’

In His service I wont as the days went by * With freest heart through the nights to lie;

Nor tasted wake, nor of Love aught reckt * Ere my heart to subjection summoned he:

‘Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!’

None weet of Love and his humbling wrong * Save those he sickened so sore, so long,

Who have lost their wits ‘mid the lover-throng * Draining bitterest cup by his hard decree:

‘Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!’

How oft in Night’s gloom he cause wake to rue Lovers’ eyne, and from eyelids their sleep withdrew; Till tears to the railing of torrents grew, Overflowing cheeks , unconfined and free:

‘Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!’

How many a man he has joyed to steep * In pain, and for pine hath he plundered sleep,—

Made don garb of mourning the deepest deep * And even his dreaming forced to flee:

‘Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!’

How oft sufferance fails me! How bones are wasted * And down my cheeks torrent tear-drops hasted:

And embittered She all the food I tasted * However sweet it was wont to be:

‘Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!’

Most hapless of men who like me must love, * And must watch when Night droops her wing from above,

Who, swimming the main where affection drove * Must sign and sink in that gloomy sea:

‘Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!’

Who is he to whom Love e’er stinted spite * And who scaped his springes and easy sleight;

Who free from Love lived in life’s delight? * Where is he can boast of such liberty?

‘Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!’

Deign Lord such suffering wight maintain * Then best Protector, protect him deign!

Establish him and his life assain * And defend him from all calamity:

‘Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me: My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!’”

 

And when Nur al-Din ended his say and ceased to sing his rhyming lay, the Wazir’s daughter said to herself, “By the virtue of the Messiah and the Faith which is no liar, verily this Moslem is a handsome youth! But doubtless he is a lover separated from his mistress. Would Heaven I wot an the beloved of this fair one is fair like unto him and if she pine for him as he for her! An she be seemly as he is, it behoveth him to pour forth tears and make moan of passion; but, an she be other than fair, his days are wasted in vain regrets and he is denied the taste of delights.”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

 

When it was the Eight Hundred and Eighty-eighth Night, She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir’s daughter said to herself, “An his beloved be fair as he, it behoveth him to pour forth tears; and, if other than fair, his heart is wasted in vain regrets!” Now Miriam the Girdle-girl, the Minister’s consort, had removed to the new palace the day before and the Wazir’s daughter knew that she was straitened of breast; so she was minded to seek her and talk with her and tell her the tidings of the young man and the rhymes and verses she had heard him recite; but, before she could carry out her design the Princess sent for her to cheer her with her converse. So she went to her and found her heavy at heart and her tears hurrying down her cheeks; and whilst she was weeping with sore weeping she recited these couplets,

 

“My life is gone but love-longings remain * And my breast is straitened with pine and pain:

And my heart for parting to melt is fain * Yet hoping that union will come again,

And join us in one who now are twain.

Stint your blame to him who in heart’s your thrall With the wasted frame which his sorrows gall, Nor with aim of arrow his heart appal For parted lover is saddest of all,

And Love’s cup of bitters is sweet to drain!”

 

Quoth the Wazir’s daughter to her, “What aileth thee, O Princess, to be thus straitened in breast and sorrowful of thought?”

Whereupon Miriam recalled the greatness of the delights that were past and recited these two couplets,

 

“I will bear in patience estrangement of friend And on cheeks rail tears that like torrents wend: Haply Allah will solace my sorrow, for He Neath the ribs of unease maketh ease at end.”

 

Said the Wazir’s daughter, “O Princess, let not thy breast be straitened, but come with me straightway to the lattice; for there is with us in the stable[FN#556] a comely young man, slender of shape and sweet of speech, and meseemeth he is a parted lover.” Miriam asked, “And by what sign knowest thou that he is a parted lover?”; and she answered, “O Queen, I know it by his improvising odes and verses all watches of the night and tides of the day.” Quoth the Princess in herself, “If what the Wazir’s daughter says be true, these are assuredly the traits of the baffled, the wretched Ali Nur al-Din. Would I knew if indeed he be the youth of whom she speaketh.” At this thought, love-longing and distraction of passion redoubled on her and she rose at once and walking with the maiden to the lattice, looked down upon the stables, where she saw her love and lord Nur al-Din and fixing her eyes steadfastly upon him, knew him with the bestest knowledge of love, albeit he was sick,