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

the lover’s embodied will.

 

[FN#332] i.e. I will lay down my life to save thee from sorrow—a common-place hyperbole of love.

 

[FN#333] Arab. “Katl.” I have noticed the Hibernian “kilt” which is not a bull but, like most provincialisms and Americanisms, a survival, an archaism. In the old Frisian dialect, which agrees with English in more words than “bread, butter and cheese,” we find the primary meaning of terms which with us have survived only in their secondary senses, e.g. killen = to beat and slagen = to strike. Here is its great value to the English philologist.

When the Irishman complains that he is “kilt” we know through the Frisian what he really means.

 

[FN#334] The decency of this description is highly commendable and I may note that the Bresl. Edit. is comparatively free from erotic pictures.

 

[FN#335] i.e. “I commit him to thy charge under God.”

 

[FN#336] This is an Americanism, but it translates passing well “Al-il�j” = insertion.

 

[FN#337] Arab. (and Heb.) “Tarjum�n” = a dragoman, for which see vol. i. 100. In the next tale it will occur with the sense of polyglottic.

 

[FN#338] See vol. i. p. 35.

 

[FN#339] After putting to death the unjust Prefect.

 

[FN#340] Arab. “Lajlaj.” See vol. ix. 322.

 

[FN#341] Arab. “Maw�lid” lit. = nativity festivals (plur. of Maulid). See vol. ix. 289.

 

[FN#342] Bresl. Edit., vol. xii. pp. 116-237, Nights dcccclxvi-dcccclxxix. Mr. Payne entitles it “El Abbas and the King’s Daughter of Baghdad.”

 

[FN#343] “Of the Shayban tribe.” I have noticed (vol. ii. 1) how loosely the title Malik (King) is applied in Arabic and in medi�val Europe. But it is ultra-Shakespearean to place a Badawi King in Baghdad, the capital founded by the Abbasides and ruled by those Caliphs till their downfall.

 

[FN#344] i.e. Ir�k Arab� (Chald�a) and ‘Ajami (Western Persia).

For the meaning of Al-Ir�k, which always, except in verse, takes the article, see vol. ii. 132.

 

[FN#345] See supra, p. 135. Mr. Payne suspects a clerical error for “Turkum�niyah” = Turcomanish; but this is hardly acceptable.

 

[FN#346] As fabulous a personage as “King Kays.”

 

[FN#347] Possibly a clerical error for Zab�d, the famous capital of the Tah�mah or lowlands of Al-Yaman.

 

[FN#348] The Moslem’s Holy Land whose capital is Meccah.

 

[FN#349] A hinted protest against making a picture or a statue which the artist cannot quicken; as this process will be demanded of him on Doomsday. Hence also the Princess is called M�riyah (Maria, Mary), a non-Moslem name.

 

[FN#350] i.e. day and night, for ever.

 

[FN#351] Koran xxxiii. 38; this concludes a “revelation”

concerning the divorce and marriage to Mohammed of the wife of his adopted son Zayd. Such union, superstitiously held incestuous by all Arabs, was a terrible scandal to the rising Faith, and could be abated only by the “Commandment of Allah.” It is hard to believe that a man could act honestly after such fashion; but we have seen in our day a statesman famed for sincerity and uprightness honestly doing things the most dishonest possible.

Zayd and Abu Lahab (chap. cxi. i.) are the only contemporaries of Mohammed named in the Koran.

 

[FN#352] i.e. darkened behind him.

 

[FN#353] Here we have again, as so common in Arab romances, the expedition of a modified Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.

 

[FN#354] Arab. “Arzi-h�” = in its earth, its outlying suburbs.

 

[FN#355] The king’s own tribe.

 

[FN#356] i.e. he was always “spoiling for a fight.”

 

[FN#357] In the text the two last sentences are spoken by Amir and the story-teller suddenly resumes the third person.

 

[FN#358] Mr. Payne translates this “And God defend the right” (of plunder according to the Arabs).

 

[FN#359] Arab. “Lill�hi darruk”; see vol. iv. 20. Captain Lockett (p.28) justly remarks that “it is a sort of encomiastic exclamation of frequent occurrence in Arabic and much easier to comprehend than translate.” Darra signifies flowing freely (as milk from the udder) and was metaphorically transferred to bounty and to indoles or natural capacity. Thus the phrase means “your flow of milk is by or through Allah.” i.e., of unusual abundance.

 

[FN#360] The words are euphemistic: we should say “comest thou to our succour.”

 

[FN#361] i.e. If his friend the Devil be overstrong for thee, flee him rather than be slain; as

 

He who fights and runs away Shall live to fight another day.

 

[FN#362] i.e. I look to Allah for said (and keep my powder dry).

 

[FN#363] i.e. to the next world.

 

[FN#364] This falling backwards in laughter commonly occurs during the earlier tales; it is, however, very rare amongst the Badawin.

 

[FN#365] i.e. as he were a flying Jinni, swooping down and pouncing falcon-like upon a mortal from the upper air.

 

[FN#366] This may be (reading Imraan = man, for Amran = matter) “a masterful man”; but I can hardly accept it.

 

[FN#367] Arab. “Bunduk�,” the adj. of Bunduk, which the Moslems evidently learned from Slav sources; Venedik being the Dalmatian corruption of Venezia. See Dubrovenedik in vol. ii. 219.

 

[FN#368] i.e. the castle’s square.

 

[FN#369] In sign of quitting possession. Chess in Europe is rarely played for money, with the exception of public matches: this, however, is not the case amongst Easterns, who are also for the most part as tricky as an old lady at cribbage rightly named.

 

[FN#370] i.e, he was as eloquent and courtly as he could be.

 

[FN#371] Arab. “Ya Z�nat al-Nis�,” which may either be a P.N. or a polite address as Bella f� (Handsome woman) is to any feminine in Southern Italy.

 

[FN#372] Arab. “Raas Ghanam”: this form of expressing singularity is common to Arabic and the Eastern languages, which it has influenced.

 

[FN#373] This most wearisome form of politeness is common in the Moslem world, where men fondly think that the more you see of them the more you like of them. Yet their Proverbial Philosophy (“the wisdom of many and the wit of one”) strongly protests against the practice: I have already quoted Mohammed’s saying, “Zur ghibban, tazid Hibban”—visits rare keep friendship fair.

 

[FN#374] This clause in the text is evidently misplaced (vol.

xii.144).

 

[FN#375] Arab. Dara’ or Dira’=armour, whether of leather or metal; here the coat worn under the mail.

 

[FN#376] Called from Rustak, a quarter of Baghdad. For Rustak town see vol. vi. 289.

 

[FN#377] From Damietta comes our “dimity.” The classical name was Tami�this apparently Coptic gr�cised: the old town on the shore famed in Crusading times was destroyed in A.H. 648 = 1251.

 

[FN#378] Easterns are always startled by sudden summons to the presence either of King or Kazi: here the messenger gives the youth to understand that it is in kindness, not in anger.

 

[FN#379] i.e. in not sending for thee to court instead of allowing thee to live in the city without guest-rite.

 

[FN#380] In sign of agitation: the phrase has often been used in this sense and we find it also in Al-Mas’udi.

 

[FN#381] I would remind the reader that the “Daw�t” (ink-case) contains the reed-pens.

 

[FN#382] Two well-known lovers.

 

[FN#383] On such occasions the old woman (and Easterns are hard de dolo vetularum) always assents to the sayings of her prey, well knowing what the doings will inevitably be.

 

[FN#384] Travellers, Nomads, Wild Arabs.

 

[FN#385] Whither they bear thee back dead with the women crying and keening.

 

[FN#386] Arab. Azn�n� = emaciated me.

 

[FN#387] Either the Deity or the Love-god.

 

[FN#388] Arab. “Him�” = the tribal domain, a word which has often occurred.

 

[FN#389] “O ye who believe! seek help through patience and prayer: verily, Allah is with the patient.” Koran ii. 148. The passage refers to one of the battles, Bedr or Ohod.

 

[FN#390] Arab. “Sirr” (a secret) and afterwards “Kitm�n”

(concealment) i.e. Keeping a lover down-hearted.

 

[FN#391] Arab. “‘Alkam” = the bitter gourd, colocynth; more usually “Hanzal.”

 

[FN#392] “For Jaz�rah” = insula, island, used in the sense of “peninsula,” see vol. i. 2.

 

[FN#393] Meccah and Al-Medinah. Pilgrimage i. 338 and ii. 57, used in the proverb “Sharr fi al-Haramayn” = wickedness in the two Holy Places.

 

[FN#394] Arab. Al-hamd (o li’llah).

 

[FN#395] i.e. play, such as the chase, or an earnest matter, such as war, etc.

 

[FN#396] Arab. “Mizwad,” or Mizwad = lit. provision-bag, from Z�d = viaticum; afterwards called Kirbah (pron. Girbah, the popular term), and Sakl. The latter is given in the Dictionaries as Ask�lah = scala, �chelle, stage, plank.

 

[FN#397] Those blood-feuds are most troublesome to the traveller, who may be delayed by them for months: and, until a peace be patched up, he will never be allowed to pass from one tribe to their enemies. A quarrel of the kind prevented my crossing Arabia from Al-Medinah to Maskat (Pilgrimage, ii. 297), and another in Africa from visiting the head of the Tanganyika Lake. In all such journeys the traveller who has to fight against Time is almost sure to lose.

 

[FN#398] i.e. his fighting-men.

 

[FN#399] The popular treatment of a detected horse-thief, for which see Burckhardt, Travels in Arabia (1829), and Notes on the Bedouins and Wahabys (1830).

 

[FN#400] Arab “Ash�rah”: see vol. vii. 121.

 

[FN#401] Arab. “Mus�fahah” -. see vol. vi. 287.

 

[FN#402] In the text, “To the palace of the king’s daughter.”

 

[FN#403] Arab. “Marj Sal�’” = cleft meadow (here and below). Mr.

Payne suggests that this may be a mistranscription for Marj Sal�’

(with a S�d) = a treeless champaign. It appears to me a careless blunder for the Marj akhzar (green meadow) before mentioned.

 

[FN#404] The palace, even without especial and personal reasons, not being the place for a religious and scrupulous woman.

 

[FN#405] “i.e. those of El Aziz, who had apparently entered the city or passed through it on their way to the camp of El Abbas.”

This is Mr. Payne’s suggestion.

 

[FN#406] Arab “Hatif”; gen. = an ally.

 

[FN#407] Not wishing to touch the hand of a strange woman.

 

[FN#408] i.e. a mere passerby, a stranger; alluding to her taunt.

 

[FN#409] The Bactrian or double-humped dromedary. See vol. iii.

67. Al-Mas’udi (vii. 169) calls it “Jamal f�lij,” lit. = the palsy-camel.

 

[FN#410] i.e. Stars and planets.

 

[FN#411] i.e. Sang in tenor tones which are always in falsetto.

 

[FN#412] Arab. Tahz�b = reforming morals, amending conduct, chastening style.

 

[FN#413] i.e. so as to show only the whites, as happens to the “mesmerised.”

 

[FN#414] i.e. for love of and longing for thy youth.

 

[FN#415] i.e. leather from Al-T�if: see vol. viii. 303. The text has by mistake T�lif�.

 

[FN#416] i.e. she was at her last breath, when cured by the magic of love.

 

[FN#417] i.e. violateth my private apartment.

 

[FN#418] The voice (Sh�zz) is left doubtful: it may be girl’s, nightingale’s, or dove’s.

 

[FN#419] Arab. “Hib�” partly induced by the rhyme. In desert countries the comparison will be appreciated: in Sind the fine dust penetrates into a closed book.

 

[FN#420] i.e. he smuggled it in under his ‘Ab�-cloak: perhaps it was a better brand than that made in the monastery.

 

[FN#421] i.e. the delights of Paradise promised by the Prophet.

 

[FN#422] Again, “he” for “she,” making the lover’s address more courtly and delicate.

 

[FN#423] i.e. take refuge with Allah from the evil eye of her charms.

 

[FN#424] i.e. an thou prank or adorn thyself: I have translated literally, but the couplet strongly suggests “nonsense verses.”

 

[FN#425] Arab. “Sant�r:” Lane (M.E., chapt.