Thousand & One Nights: Twenty Fourth Night: The Revenge

The MoonStone man relates his story to the King, who came in search of the mystery behind coloured fish and the lake. The former follows his wife and find out her rendezvous with a black man. He drews his sword and struck the black man.

The break of dusk and everyone including king Shahriar, Queen Shahrazad, her sister Dinarzad and the story telling team were present to begin the story of twenty fourth night. Officers of the king, lords, servants, slaves and slave girls as audience were also present.

Twenty Fourth Night:

The MoonStone man picked up the thread. 

"My lord, I struck the black man on his neck, but failed. Though it cut into skin and flesh of the throat, the wound was not deep, but I thought that I had killed him. He began to snort violently, and my wife pulled away from him. I retreated, put the sword back in its place and went back to the the city. I entered the palace, and went to sleep in my bed till morning.

My wife had arrived. She had cut her hair and put on a mourning weed. She said, "Husband, don't reproach me for what I am doing, for I have received news that my mother has died, that my father was killed in the holy war, and that my two brothers have also lost their lives, one in battle and the other bitten by a snake. I have every reason to weep and mourn." 
I said, "I don't reproach you. Do as you wish."
Weeping and wailing she mourned for an entire year. As the year ended, she said to me, "I want you to let me build inside the palace a mausoleum for me to use as a special place of mourning and to call it The House of Sorrows." I replied, "Go ahead."

She gave the order and a house of mourning was erected for her, with a domed mausoleum and a tomb inside. Then she moved the wounded black man to the mausoleum and placed him in the tomb. Although he is still alive, from the day I cut his throat, he never spoke a word. Neither can he move, except drink liquids. Every day morning and evening, she visited him in the mausoleum, taking with her beverages and broth. I left her to her own will. One day, I entered the mausoleum without her being aware.
She was crying and she lamented as follows:
When I see you it pains me.
And when I see you not
It pains me more and more.
Speak to me my lord 
And talk to me my lord.
I crave for the day I have you 
The day you leave me is the 
Day I die. With this fear of death 
Why should I live. I would rather 
Have in death's hand 
when you leave me alone.

All the blessings in the world 
And all the kingdoms of Persia 
Is an insect's wing, an insect's 
Wing when I miss you.

After this, I said to her, "Wife you have mourned enough. Do not shed any more tears."
She replied, "Husband, do not interfere with my mourning. If you interfere again I will kill myself." I kept quiet and left her alone. 

After the end of third year, feeling the strain of the drawn-out heavy burden, something happened to trigger my anger, and when I returned, I found my wife in mausoleum, beside the tomb, saying, "My lord I have not had any word from you. For three years I have had no reply." Then she recited the following verses:

O tomb, O tomb has his beauties lost,
Or have you lost your radiant look,
Neither garden nor a star the  sun 
And moon at once how can you host.

These verses added anger to my anger. I said to myself, "O how long shall I endure?" Then I burst out the following verses:
O tomb O tomb has he lost his black
Or have you lost that filthy look?
O tomb neither a toilet nor dirty spot
Soot and mud how can you host? 

At these verses my wife sprang up and said, "Damn you! Dirty dog. You did this to me. You wounded my beloved. You tormented me depriving me of his youth."

I replied, "You dirty whore, who always desired and copulated with black slaves. Yes it was I who did this to him." Then I drew my sword to strike her. 

She replied, "Get away you dog, what is done cannot be undone. But God has delivered to me the one who did it to me." Then she stood up and uttered words I could not understand, and cried, "With my magic and cunning, be half man and half stone."

Sir, from that instant I have been as you now see me, dejected and sad, helpless and sleepless, neither living with the living nor dead among the dead.

End of the Night











Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

( 16 )CHARLES DICKENS: DAVID COPPERFIELD: CHAPTER 16: I AM A NEW BOY IN MORE SENSES THAN ONE

Next morning, after breakfast, I entered on school life again.  I went, accompanied by Mr Wickfield to the scene of my future studies- a grave building in a courtyard, with a learned air about it that suited very well to the stray rooks and jackdaws who came down from the Cathedral tower to walk with a clerkly bearing on the grass plot - and was introduced to my new master, Doctor Strong. Doctor Strong looked almost as rusty, to my thinking, as the tall iron rails and gates outside the house; and almost as stiff and heavy as the great stone urn that flanked them, and were set up, on the top of red brick wall, at regular distances all round the court, like sublimated skittles for Time to play at.  Doctor Strong was in his library, with his clothes not particularly well brushed, and his hair not particularly combed, his knee-small unbraced, his long black gaiters unbuttoned, and his shoes  yawning like two caverns on the hearth-rug.  Turning upon me a lustreless eye, t...
Read more

Sailing Around Erethraean Sea: Three

Updated 29/11/2024 Below the Calf-Eaters there is a little market-town on the shore after sailing about four thousand stadia from Berenice, called Ptolemais of Hunts, from which the hunters started for the interior under the dynasty of Ptolemies. This market town has true land to rtoise in small quantities; it is white and smaller in the shells. And here also is found a little ivory, like that of Adulis. But the place has no harbour, and is reached by small boats. 1. Calf-Eaters: Cattle rearing nomadic tribes. 2. Stadia is the plural of stadion. Ten  stadia= one mile. 3. Ptolemais of Hunts: Ptolemies Theron is the exact Greek term,  located at the Bay of Anfile or Amphila Bay on the coast of Eritrea. Facing the bay is Hando island. It is, in fact, a double bay, an inner bay within, between promontories M'edr and Lelisa. End of the Section 
Read more

Travels Of Marco Polo: Thirty

Now, let me tell of the beasts which his Majesty keeps for hunting.  Among these are Leopards and lynxes or stag-wolves well fitted for that purpose.  He has also many lions larger than those of Babylon of a beautiful hair and colour, striped length ways black red and white, and trained to catch stags, wild oxen, hogs, wild goats and asses; it is delightful to see one of these chases, where the hunters go out, carrying the lion in a cage, and with him a small dog.  They have likewise abundance of eagles, with which they capture hares, foxes and even wolves; those which are trained to catch these last are very large, and of great weight, so that no wolf can escape them. ____________________________________ 1. The lion here described by the author is manifestly the tiger. It is probable that tiger was unknown in Europe when Marco left, he might have viewed it as a variety of lion. 2. Lion and tigers are wild animals and cannot be domesticated. Still human societies used to ...
Read more