Thousand & One Nights:132nd Night: Mosul Youth & The Murdered Girl- 2

Mosul Youth continued his story:

I had grown up and reached manhood. One day, I went with my father and uncles to Mosul mosque. After prayer the people went out. But my father and uncles did not leave. We sat in a circle and they began to chat. Wonders of foreign lands and the marvels and markets of cities came in their discussion. One of my uncles said, "Travelers say that Cairo is a fair and beautiful city." At that moment I longed to see Cairo. Another said, "Baghdad is a paradise and the capital of the world."
"He who has not seen Cairo has not seen the world,"  said my father, "its dust is gold, its women dolls, and its Nile a wonder, whose water is sweet and refreshing, and whose clay is soft and cool.as the poet said:
Enjoy the flooding Nile
Whose waters bestow riches
The Nile is not the tears I shed
A boon, flows from my blighted eyes.

Its garden with flowers and blossoms, Nile with its islands, the Ethiopian pond, all these will be a dazzling sight. Gardens encircled by waters of Nile like chrysolites set in silver sheets! How well the poet put it:
O What a day by Ethiopian pond 
 Between the shadows and light.
The water splashing the green  A Sabre in an eye trembling with fright
We sat in a fine garden where the Rays adorned that lovely sight.
A garden woven by the clouds
Soft carpets spread for us to walk
We sat passing the refreshing wine
Which for sorrow works the best.
Deep draughts from large cups 
Alone can quench our burning thirst.

Morning overtook and Shahrazad lapsed into silence.







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

Thousand & One Nights: 70th Night

Harun al Rashid on his roaming the country side, saw a fisherman who did not have any catch for the day and worried about his family's bread. The Caliph had brought him to the banks of Tigris and asked him to throw the net. When they pulled the net the catch was a locked heavy chest. The Caliph paid him one hundred dinars. The chest was taken to the palace. Now the story to continue: When the chest was opened there was a girl. She had been cut into nineteen pieces. The Caliph looked at her, felt very sad, and turned to Ja'far and said angrily, "You, dog of a vizier, people are being killed and thrown into river in my city while I take the responsibility of Doomsday. If you do not find her killer, I will hang you and forty of your kin with you." "O Commander of the Faithful, give me three days."Ja'far said. Ja'far went into the city, vexed, worried and sad. He had no idea what to do. He thought to himself, "Where shall I find the murderer?" ...
Read more

Thousand & One Nights: 66th Night:

When the wind began to blow, we set sail, and we sat chatting, my sisters asked me, "Sister, what will you do with this young man?" I replied, "I will make him my husband." Then I turned to him and said, "O My lord, when we reach Baghdad, I offer myself to you, and we will be husband and wife." The young man replied, "Yes, indeed, for you are my lady, and my mistress." I turned to my sisters and said, "Whatever goods we have are yours, my only reward is this young man. He is mine and I am his." We sailed under fair wind until we entered Sea of Safety and began to approach Basra. Night came. The young man and I fell asleep. My two sisters turned green with envy over him and harboured ill will towards me. They had been waiting patiently to get an opportunity. They carried me in my sleep, with my bed and threw me into the sea. They did the same to the young man. He was drowned. I wish I had drowned with him. But I was escaped. I was cast o...
Read more