Classics Retold

The following night Shahrazad said: The queen said to Badr, "You love me and I love you, for you are my lot in life." When he heard this, he being drunk, replied, "Yes, this is how I felt." Then she embraced him, kissed him, and pretending to love him, lay down to sleep, and he lay beside her.  In the middle of the night, she rose from bed, while Badr lay awake, pretending to be asleep, and taking care to follow her movement.  She took red sand from a bag and spread it on the floor of the room, and it became a running stream.  Then she took a handful of barley and strewed it in the soil on the bank of the stream and watered it with the water from the stream and turned it into ears of barley. Then, she reaped the barley and ground it into flour. Then she laid the meal aside, and returning to bed, slept beside Badr till the morning.  In the morning Badr went to see the old man. He narrated his experience of previous day to the old man.  The old man laughed and sai...

The following night Shahrazad said: King Badr went to the old favabean seller's shop.  The old man received him happily. The old man asked, how did you fare with that infidel?" King Badr replied, "It was alright till last night.  But today an untoward incident took place.  When I woke up in the morning I did not see her by my side. I waited for a long time, but she did not turn up.  Then I went in search of her to the garden."  Then he told what he had seen in the garden, how queen Lab in the form of a white bird, and a black mamluk as a black bird had been making love.  The old man said, "The cursed woman has started to play games.  You should beware of her. All the birds in the garden are her lovers. She enjoy them and then turn them into birds.  The black bird was one of her Mamluks. She was madly in love with him.  But when he eyed one of her maids, she cast a spell over him and turned him into a bird.  Whenever she lusts for him, sh...

The following night Shahrazad said: Day and night for forty days king Badr and queen Lab lived a life of eating and drinking and pleasure seeking. There was a break on the forty first day.  When Badr woke up, ready for a fun, Lab was not in the bed. Keeping his charge ready, he waited, but she did not come. "Where could she have gone?" He felt lonely, and getting out of bed, put on his clothes and went out into the garden. He came by the bank of a stream. The gurgle of water flowing along the rocky surface caught his attention. He moved close to it. There were two birds, a black one and a white one engaged in courtship rituals.  The black bird fanned his tail, and spread his wings, took off into the air and hoaverd around above the white bird. His serenades, like singing and chirping evoked equal serenades from his beloved, hopping on the boulder in the stream. The black bird flew down and stood on its claws beside the white bird, and it crouched allowing her beloved to mount...

The following night Shahrazad said: The queen gave a cup to Badr who took it and drank it off, and they continued to drink till they began to get drink. Then the girls began to play lutes and harps and they sang songs. Badr thought that the palace and everything in it were dancing to the tune of the girls. Badr forgot his separation from home, and said to himself, "By God, this queen is young and beautiful and I will never leave her. Her kingdom is vaster than mine and she is fairer than Jauhara."  He continued to drink till nightfall, and the palace was lighted with candles, and scent of perfumes and incense spread the entire palace. The girls sang: O what a day we spent under the tree Pleasure and delight, the rivulet  Shining, and the myrtle blue The starry narcissus and roses bright The glittering wine and brimming cup And crackling incense rising in light. They continued to drink while the girls sang.  Then she dismissed the girls, lay on the bed, and drew the young ...

The following night Shahrazad said: The Queen gave favabean seller one thousand dinars and took young Badr and went away.  Young Badr rode beside her, and the people looked at him, felt sorry for him, and would say, "By God, such young and beautiful man does not deserve to be enchanted by that cursed witch."  They reached at the palace of witch; the princes and nobles and servants dismounted and stood in attendance. The queen took Badr by hand and led him towards the throne. The queen sat on the throne, and made Badr sit by her side.  Then she dismissed all the chamberlains, princes and prominent personalities, and they kissed the ground before her and departed.  Then the queen took king Badr by hand and walked into a large parlour, adorned with gold and jewel with rooms on either side, and in the middle of the parlour stood a beautiful garden.  In the middle of the garden, there stood a large pond full of golden fish.  King Badr said to himself, "Glory be ...

The following night Shahrazad said: The old man said to king Badr, "She may hurt even her relatives, but she will not dare hurt me.  Have you not seen how her troops and retinue stood at my shop and saluted me?  By God, son, this infidel refuses to salute even the kings, but whenever she passes by my shop, she stops to salute me and speak with me, as you have seen and heard." Next morning, queen Lab came with her girls, Mamluks and attendants who were armed with swords and spears, stopped at the door of the shop and saluted the old man.  The old man kissed the ground before her, and returned the salute. The queen said to him, "Father, fulfill your pledge at once."  The old man replied, "Swear to me again that you will never harm him, enchant him, or do to him anything he abhors."  She swore again by her faith and unveiled a face like the moon, and said, "Father, how you procrastinate in giving me your handsome nephew!  Am I not more beautiful than he?...

The following night Shahrazad said: The queen said to the old man, "Father, will you give him to me as a gift? I love him.  By the fire and light, by the hot wind and cool shade, I will make him my lot in life.  Do not fear for him, for I may harm everyone on the face of the earth, but I will not harm him.  You know the mutual esteem we hold for each other." The old man replied, "O my queen, I can neither give him to you as a gift nor surrender him to you." She said, "By the fire and the light, by the hot wind and the cool shade, and by my faith, I will not leave without him.  I will not betray him or enchant him, and I will do only what will please him." The old man who did not dare cross her, fearing for himself and for young Badr, secured an oath from her that she would not harm the young man and that she would return him as she received him.  Then he said to her, "When you return from the square tomorrow, I will give him to you." She thanked ...