The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, vol 3 | Page 7

thou chance to fall in with her who worked these
gazelles, hold aloof from her and do not let her approach thee nor
marry her; and if thou happen not on her and find no way to her, look
thou consort not with any of her sex. Know that she who wrought these
gazelles worketh every year a gazelle cloth and despatcheth it to far
countries, that her report and the beauty of her broidery, which none in
the world can match, may be bruited abroad. As for thy beloved, the
daughter of Dalilah the Wily, this cloth came to her hand, and she used
to ensnare folk with it, showing it to them and saying, 'I have a sister
who wrought this.' But she lied in so saying, Allah rend her veil! This is
my parting counsel; and I have not charged thee with this charge, but
because I know[FN#6] that after my death the world will be straitened
on thee and, haply, by reason of this, thou wilt leave thy native land
and wander in foreign parts, and hearing of her who wrought these
figures, thou mayest be minded to fore gather with her. Then wilt thou
remember me, when the memory shall not avail thee; nor wilt thou
know my worth till after my death. And, lastly, learn that she who
wrought the gazelles is the daughter of the King of the Camphor
Islands and a lady of the noblest." Now when I had read that scroll and
understood what was written therein, I fell again to weeping, and my
mother wept because I wept, and I ceased not to gaze upon it and to
shed tears till night fall. I abode in this condition a whole year, at the
end of which the merchants, with whom I am in this cafilah, prepared
to set out from my native town; and my mother counseled me to equip
myself and journey with them, so haply I might be consoled and my
sorrow be dispelled, saying, "Take comfort and put away from thee this
mourning and travel for a year or two or three, till the caravan return,
when perhaps thy breast may be broadened and thy heart heartened."
And she ceased not to persuade me with endearing words, till I
provided myself with merchandise and set out with the caravan. But all
the time of my wayfaring, my tears have never dried; no, never! and at

every halting place where we halt, I open this piece of linen and look
on these gazelles and call to mind my cousin Azizah and weep for her
as thou hast seen; for indeed she loved me with dearest love and died,
oppressed by my unlove. I did her nought but ill and she did me nought
but good. When these merchants return from their journey, I shall
return with them, by which time I shall have been absent a whole year:
yet hath my sorrow waxed greater and my grief and affliction were but
increased by my visit to the Islands of Camphor and the Castle of
Crystal. Now these islands are seven in number and are ruled by a King,
by name Shahriman,[FN#7] who hath a daughter called Dunyá;[FN#8]
and I was told that it was she who wrought these gazelles and that this
piece in my possession was of her embroidery. When I knew this, my
yearning redoubled and I burnt with the slow fire of pining and was
drowned in the sea of sad thought; and I wept over myself for that I was
become even as a woman, without manly tool like other men, and there
was no help for it. From the day of my quitting the Camphor Islands, I
have been tearful eyed and heavy hearted, and such hath been my case
for a long while and I know not whether it will be given me to return to
my native land and die beside my mother or not; for I am sick from
eating too much of the world. Thereupon the young merchant wept and
groaned and complained and gazed upon the gazelles; whilst the tears
rolled down his cheeks in streams and he repeated these two couplets,
"Joy needs shall come," a prattler 'gan to prattle: * "Needs cease thy
blame!" I was commoved to rattle: 'In time,' quoth he: quoth I ' 'Tis
marvellous! * Who shall ensure my life, O cold of tattle!'"[FN#9]
And he repeated also these,
"Well Allah weets that since our severance day * I've wept till forced to
ask of tears a loan: 'Patience! (the blamer cries): thou'lt have her yet!' *
Quoth I, 'O blamer where may patience wone?'"
Then said he, "This, O King! is my tale: hast thou ever heard one
stranger?" So Taj al-Muluk