The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night - Vol 3

580 Pages·2016·2.39 MB·English

The Book of The Thousand Nights and One
Night
The Book of the Thousand
Nights and One Night
RENDERED INTO ENGLISH FROM
THE LITERAL AND COMPLETE
FRENCH TRANSLATION OF
DR J.C.MARDRUS
BY POWYS MATHERS
Volume III
LONDON AND NEW YORK
Second edition 1964
First published as a paperback in 1986
by Routledge & Kegan Paul plc
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
ISBN 0-203-35913-5 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-37169-0 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-04541-X (vol. III)
ISBN 0-415-04543-6 (set)
Contents of Volume III
THE TALE OF ABU KIR AND ABU SIR 1
MORAL ANECDOTES FROM THE PERFUMED
GARDEN
containing
The Three Wishes 27
The Boy and the Rubber 29
There is White and White 31
THE TALE OF LAND ABDALLAH AND SEA 35
ABDALLAH
THE TALE OF THE YELLOW YOUTH 53
THE TALE OF POMEGRANATE-FLOWER AND BADR 71
BASIM
ISHAK’S WINTER EVENING 105
THE FALLAH OF EGYPT AND HIS WHITE 111
CHILDREN
THE TALE OF KHALIFAH THE FISHERMAN 117
THE ADVENTURES OF HASAN OF BASRAH 155
THE DIWAN OF JOVIAL AND INDECENT FOLK
containing
The Historic Fart 223
The Two Jesters 225
A Woman’s Trick 226
THE TALE OF THE SLEEPER WAKENED 233
v
THE LOVES OF ZAIN AL-MAWASIF 269
THE TALE OF THE LAZY YOUTH 287
THE TALE OF YOUNG NUR AND THE WARRIOR 297
GIRL
THE RECITALS OF GENEROSITY AND CONDUCT
containing
Salah al-Din and His Wazir 343
The Lovers’ Tomb 345
The Divorce of Hind 351
THE STRANGE TALE OF THE MIRROR OF VIRGINS 355
THE TALE OF ALA AL-DIN AND THE WONDERFUL 375
LAMP
THE PARABLE OF TRUE LEARNING 441
FARIZAD OF THE ROSE’S SMILE 445
THE TALE OF KAMAR AND THE EXPERT HALIMAH 465
THE TALE OF THE LEG OF MUTTON 489
THE KEYS OF DESTINY 495
THE DIWAN OF EASY JESTS AND LAUGHING
WISDOM
containing
The Everlasting Slippers 517
Buhlul the Jester 520
The Invitation to Universal Peace 521
The Tale of the Tied Points 524
The Tale of the Two Hashish-Eaters 526
The Tale of the Father of Farts 529
The Tale of the Kadi-Mule 536
The Kadi and the Ass’s Foal 540
vi
The Tale of the Astute Kadi 545
The Man Who Understood Women 548
The Hashish-Eater in Judgment 552
THE TALE OF PRINCESS NUR AL-NIHAR AND THE 555
LOVELY JINNIYAH
The Tale of Abu Kir and Abu Sir
SHAHRAZAD SAID:
IT is related, O auspicious King, that there were once in Alexandria a
dyer called Abu Kir and a barber named Abu Sir, who had neighbouring
shops in the market.
Abu Kir was a notorious rascal, a detestable liar, and a man of
exceedingly ill life. His temples must have been hewn of indestructible
granite and his head formed from one of the steps of the synagogue of
Jews; otherwise how are we to explain the shameless audacity which he
displayed in all his sins? Among countless other pieces of roguery, he
used to make most of his clients pay in advance, alleging that he had
need of ready money to buy colours…and that was the last they saw of
the stuffs which they had brought to be dyed. He not only spent the
money in pleasant eating and drinking, but also secretly sold the stuffs
which had been trusted to him and bought himself amusements of a high
order with the proceeds. When the customers came to claim their goods,
he would find one pretext or another to make them wait indefinitely.
Thus he would say to one: ‘As Allah lives, my master, my wife lay in
yesterday and I had to be up and down upon my feet all the time.’ Or to
another: ‘I had guests yesterday and all my time was taken up with them;
but if you come back in two days the stuff will be ready for you.’ He
drew out every piece of business which came his way to such
extravagant lengths that at last one of his victims would be bound to
cry: ‘Come, tell me the truth about my stuffs. Give them back, for I
have decided not to have them dyed.’ ‘Alas, I am in despair!’ Abu Kir
would answer, lifting his hands to heaven, swearing every imaginable
oath that he would tell the truth, beating his hands together and weeping.
‘Dear master,’ he would sob, ‘as soon as your stuffs were most
beautifully dyed, I hung them on the drying cords outside my shop; I
turned away for a moment to piss and when I looked again they had
2 THE THOUSAND NIGHTS AND ONE NIGHT
disappeared! If you ask me, I think they were stolen by my neighbour,
that most dishonest barber.’ Then, if the customer were a fine fellow, he
would say: ‘Allah will make good the loss!’and go his way; if he were
irritable, he would probably swear at the dyer and come to blows with
him in the open street. But even so, and in spite of the kadi’s authority,
no one ever got back his stuffs; because, in the first place, proof was
lacking that they had been given and, in the second, there was nothing
in the dyer’s shop worth seizing. For a long time Abu Kir gained a
livelihood in this way; but the day came when every merchant and private
individual in that quarter had been victimised, and Abu Kir saw his credit
broken beyond repair and his business ruined. He had become so general
an object of mistrust that his name had passed into a proverb when
anyone wished to speak of bad faith.
When he was reduced to the last straits, Abu Kir sat down before the
shop of his neighbour, the barber Abu Sir, and complained that
starvation stared him in the face. At once the barber, who walked in
Allah’s way and who, though poor, was unusually honest, had
compassion on Abu Kir, and said: ‘There is a duty from one neighbour
to another. Stay with me here; eat, drink, and use the gifts of Allah until
the coming of better days.’ With that he took him into his house and
supplied all his needs for a very long time.
One day the barber, Abu Sir, complained to the dyer, Abu Kir, of the
hard times, saying: ‘Brother, I am far from being a clumsy barber, I
know my business and my hand is light; but, because my shop is poor
and I am poor, no one comes to be shaved. Perhaps in the morning at
the hammam some porter or fireman gets me to shave his armpits or
apply the paste to his groin. Thus I earn a few copper pieces, which
hardly feed me and you and the family which hangs about my neck. But
Allah is great and generous!’ ‘Brother,’ answered Abu Kir, ‘you must
be very simple to endure hardships so patiently when you have the
means to get rich and live largely. Your trade fails and mine is ruined
because of the malevolence of our fellow citizens; therefore our best
plan is to leave this cruel country and voyage until we find some city
where our arts will be appreciated. Travel is a rare thing; how pleasant
it is to breathe good air, to forget the crosses of life, to see new lands,
fresh cities, to learn to drive a thriving foreign trade in businesses
honoured throughout the world, as are yours and mine! Remember that
a poet said:
What’s danger, so the feet may roam
Beyond the town where custom is?
THE TALE OF ABU KIR AND ABU SIR 3
Better be dead than stay at home,
A flea with lice for enemies…
Invite your soul to voyages,
For at the gates of new found lands
Wait raptures and discoveries
And gold with laughter in her hands.
Let us shut our shops and set forth together to seek a better fortune.’ He
went on to speak so eloquently that Abu Sir was convinced and
hastened to make his preparations for departure. These consisted in
wrapping his basins, razors, scissors, and iron in an old piece of patched
cloth and saying good-bye to his family. When he returned to the shop,
the dyer said to him: ‘Now it only remains to recite the opening
chapters of the Koran, to prove that we are brothers, and to agree that
each shall put his profits into a common fund, to be equally divided
when we return to Alexandria. We should also have an undertaking that
whichever of us finds work shall agree to provide for the other, if he
cannot earn for himself.’ The barber Abu Sir subscribed to these
conditions, and the two recited the opening chapter of the Koran to seal
their bond.
At this point Shahrazad saw the approach of morning and discreetly
fell silent.
But when the four-hundred-and-eighty-eighth night
had come
SHE SAID:
Abu Sir shut his shop and returned the key to its owner, paying his
rent in full; then the two walked down to the port and embarked,
entirely without provision of food, on board a boat which was about to
sail.
Fate favoured them during the voyage, using the better as its
instrument. Among the passengers and crew, who numbered a hundred
and forty souls, there was no other barber than Abu Sir; so, when the
ship was well started, the barber said to his companion: ‘My brother, we
need food and drink. I shall go now and offer my services to the
passengers and sailors, in case one should wish to have his head shaved.
If I can earn bread or money or a cup of water, so much the better for
both of us.’ ‘Go then,’ answered the dyer, and straightway arranged his
head more comfortably and went to sleep upon the deck.