The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 5, Sir Richard Francis Burton [best book clubs .txt] 📗

Quoth he, ‘I feared shame[FN#197] and dishonour; and now I am fallen into both.’ ” And they tell a tale of

THE MAD LOVER.

Quoth Abu ‘l-Abb�s al-Mubarrad,[FN#198] “I set out one day with a company to Al-B�rid on an occasion and, coming to the monastery of Hirakl,[FN#199] we alighted in its shade. Presently a man came out to us and said, ‘There are madmen in the monastery,[FN#200]

and amongst them one who speaketh wisdom; if ye saw him, ye would marvel at his speech.’ So we arose all and went into the monastery’ where we saw a man seated on a skin mat in one of the cells, with bare head and eyes intently fixed upon the wall. We saluted him, and he returned our salaam, without looking at us, and one said to us, ‘Repeat some verses to him; for, when he heareth verse, he speaketh.’ So I repeated these two couplets, ‘O best of race to whom gave Hawwa[FN#201] boon of birth, *

Except for thee the world were neither sweet nor fair!

Thou’rt he, whose face, by Allah shown to man, *

Doth ward off death, decay and hoary hair.’

When he heard from me this praise of the Apostle he turned towards us and repeated these lines,

‘Well Allah wotteth I am sorely plagued: *

Nor can I show my pain to human sight.

Two souls have I, one soul is here contained, *

While other woneth in another site.

Meseems the absent soul’s like present soul, *

And that she suffers what to me is dight.’

Then he asked us. ‘Have I said well or said ill? And we answered, ‘Thou hast said the clean contrary of ill, well and right well.’

Then he put out his hand to a stone, that was by him and took it up; whereupon thinking he would throw it at us we fled from him; but he fell to beating upon his breast therewith violent blows and said to us, ‘Fear not, but draw near and hear somewhat from me and receive it from me.’ So we came back, and he repeated these couplets,

‘When they made their camels yellow white kneel down at dawning grey * They mounted her on crupper and the camel went his way,

Mine eye balls through the prison wall beheld them, and I cried *

With streaming eyelids and a heart that burnt in dire dismay O camel driver turn thy beast that I farewell my love! * In parting and farewelling her I see my doomed day I’m faithful to my vows of love which I have never broke, * Would Heaven I kenned what they have done with vows that vowed they!’

Then he looked at me and said, ‘Say me, dost thou know what they did?’[FN#202] Answered I, ‘Yes, they are dead; Almighty Allah have mercy on them!’ At this his face changed and he sprang to his feet and cried out, ‘How knowest thou they be dead?;’ and I replied, ‘Were they alive they had not left thee thus.’ Quoth he, ‘By Allah, thou art right, and I care not to live after them.’

Then his side muscles quivered and he fell on his face; and we ran up to him and shook him and found him dead, the mercy of the Almighty be on him! At this we marvelled and mourned for him and, sore mourning, laid him out and buried him”.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

When it was the Four Hundred and Twelfth Night, She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that al-Mubarrad thus continued: “When the man fell we mourned over him with sore mourning and laid him out and buried him. And when I returned to Baghdad and went in to the Caliph al-Mutawakkil, he saw the trace of tears on my face and said to me, ‘What is this?’ So I told him what had passed and it was grievous to him and he cried, ‘What moved thee to deal thus with him?[FN#203] By Allah, if I thought thou didst not repent it and regret him I would punish thee therefor!’ And he mourned for him the rest of the day.” And amongst the tales they tell is one of

THE PRIOR WHO BECAME A MOSLEM.

Quoth Abu Bakr Mohammed ibn Al-Anb�ri[FN#204]: “I once left Anb�r on a journey to ‘Am�r�yah,[FN#205] where there came out to me the prior of the monastery and superior of the monkery, Abd al-Mas�h hight, and brought me into the building. There I found forty religious, who entertained me that night with fair guest rite, and I left them after seeing among them such diligence in adoration and devotion as I never beheld the like of in any others. Next day I farewelled them and fared forth and, after doing my business at ‘Amuriyah, I returned to my home at Anbar.

And next year I made pilgrimage to Meccah and as I was circumambulating the Holy House I saw Abd al-Masih the monk also compassing the Ka’abah, and with him five of his fellows, the shavelings. Now when I was sure that it was indeed he, I accosted him, saying, ‘Art thou not Abd al-Masih, the Religious?’ and he replied, ‘Nay, I am Abdallah, the Desirous.’[FN#206] Therewith I fell to kissing his grey hairs and shedding tears; then, taking him by the hand, I led him aside into a corner of the Temple and said to him, ‘Tell me the cause of thy conversion to al-Islam;’

and he made reply, ‘Verily, ‘twas a wonder of wonders, and befell thus. A company of Moslem devotees came to the village wherein is our convent, and sent a youth to buy them food. He saw, in the market, a Christian damsel selling bread, who was of the fairest of women; and he was struck at first sight with such love of her, that his senses failed him and he fell on his face in a fainting fit. When he revived, he returned to his companions and told them what had befallen him, saying, ‘Go ye about your business; I may not go with you.’ They chided him and exhorted him, but he paid no heed to them; so they left him whilst he entered the village and seated himself at the door of the woman’s booth.[FN#207] She asked him what he wanted, and he told her that he was in love with her whereupon she turned from him; but he abode in his place three days without tasting food, keeping his eyes fixed on her face. Now whenas she saw that he departed not from her, she went to her people and acquainted them with his case, and they set on him the village boys, who stoned him and bruised his ribs and broke his head; but, for all this, he would not budge. Then the villagers took counsel together to slay him; but a man of them came to me and told me of his case, and I went out to him and found him lying prostrate on the ground. So I wiped the blood from his face and carried him to the convent, and dressed his wounds; and there he abode with me fourteen days. But as soon as he could walk, he left the monastery”—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the Four Hundred and Thirteenth Night, She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Abdallah the Religious continued: “So I carried him to the convent and dressed his wounds, and he abode with me fourteen days. But as soon as he could walk, he left the monastery and returned to the door of the woman ‘s booth, where he sat gazing on her as before.

When she saw him she came out to him and said, ‘By Allah thou movest me to pity! wilt thou enter my faith that I may marry thee?’ He cried, ‘Allah forbid that I should put off the faith of Unity and enter that of Plurality!’[FN#208] Quoth she, ‘Come in with me to my house and take thy will of me and wend thy ways in peace.’ Quoth he, ‘Not so, I will not waste the worship of twelve years for the lust of an eye-twinkle.’ Said she, ‘Then depart from me forthwith;’ and he said, ‘My heart will not suffer me to do that;’ whereupon she turned her countenance from him.

Presently the boys found him out and began to pelt him with stones; and he fell on his face, saying, ‘Verily, Allah is my protector, who sent down the Book of the Koran; and He protecteth the Righteous![FN#209] At this I sallied forth and driving away the boys, lifted his head from the ground and heard him say, ‘Allah mine, unite me with her in Paradise!’ Then I carried him to the monastery, but he died, before I could reach it, and I bore him without the village and I dug for him a grave and buried him. And next night when half of it was spent, the damsel cried with a great cry (and she in her bed); so the villagers flocked to her and questioned her of her case. Quoth she, ‘As I slept, behold the Moslem man came in to me and taking me by the hand, carried me to the gate of Paradise; but the Guardian denied me entrance, saying, ‘Tis forbidden to unbelievers.’ So I embraced Al Islam at his hands and, entering with him, beheld therein pavilions and trees, such as I cannot describe to you. Moreover, he brought me to a pavilion of jewels and said to me, ‘Of a truth this is my pavilion and thine, nor will I enter it save with thee; but, after five nights thou shalt be with me therein, if it be the will of Allah Almighty.’ Then he put forth his hand to a tree which grew at the door of the pavilion and plucked there from two apples and gave them to me, saying, ‘Eat this and keep the other, that the monks may see it.’ So I ate one of them and never tasted I aught sweeter.’ “—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

When it was the Four Hundred and Fourteenth Night, She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the woman continued: “‘So he plucked two apples and gave them to me, saying, ‘Eat this and keep the other that the monks may see it.’

So I ate one of them and never tasted I aught sweeter. Then he took my hand and fared forth and carried me back to my house; and, when I awoke, I found the taste of the apple in my mouth and the other in my hand.’ So saying she brought out the apple, and in the darkness of the night it shone as it were a sparkling star. So they carried her (and the apple with her) to the monastery, where she repeated her vision and showed it to us; never saw we its like among all the fruits of the world. Then I took a knife and cut the apple into pieces according as we were folk in company; and never knew we aught more delicious than its savour nor more delightsome than its scent; but we said, ‘Haply this was a devil that appeared unto her to seduce her from her faith.’ Thereupon her people took her and went away; but she abstained from eating and drinking and on the fifth night she rose from her bed, and going forth the village to the grave of her Moslem lover threw herself upon it and died, her family not knowing what was