Thousand & One Nights: 59th Night: Tale by 3rd Dervish - 7

O my lady, the girls sat around me, and when the night came, five of them rose and set up a banquet with plenty of nuts and fragrant herbs. Then they brought wine and we sat to drink. Girls sitting around me, some talking, some laughing, some playing the flute, the psalter, the lute, and other musical instruments. The splash of wine into the bowls, the clattering of cups, and laughing of girls made me happy and I forgot my worries and sorrows.

Then, one of the girls said to me, " O Lord, choose from among us whomever you wish to sleep with you." I chose a girl who had lovely face and dark eyes, black hair and joining brows, and a mouth with slightly parted teeth. Seeing her I remembered the poet's verses:

She swayed like a ripe willow bough
Lovely, sweet, and delicious sight
Her glittering mouth revealed  Flashing stars answered with light
When she loosened her black tress
The dawn became dusky black
And when her radiant face shone 
The gloomy earth turned bright.
Her honeydew lips and darting looks 
A pagan boy like I loved her madly.
So sweet the night I slept with her.

It was the dawn. Queen Shahrazad put an end.

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

Sailing Around Erythraean Sea: Seven

In Section six the unknown sailor was at Zula (ancient Adulis). He had been giving an account of imports and exports to Zula and other ports he covered earlier. From this place the Arabian Gulf trends toward the east and become narrow just before the Gulf of Avalites.  After about four thousand stadia [about four hundred miles or six hundred and forty kilometres] for those sailing eastward along the same coast there are other Berber market-towns, known as the "far-side ports; lying at intervals one after the other without harbours but having roadsteads where ships can anchor and lie in good weather. The first is called Avalites; to this place the voyage from Arabia to far-side coast is shortest. Here there is a small market-town called Avalites, which must be reached by boats and rafts. There are imported into this place, flint glass assorted, juice of sour grapes from Diospolis,  dressed cloth assorted, made for the Berbers; wheat, wine and a little tin. There are exported f...
Read more