书城公版Volume Seven
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第105章

Now after seeing his father in the dream and hearing his re preaches,Kamar alZaman awoke in the morning,afflicted and troubled,whereupon the Lady Budur questioned him and he told her what he had seen.And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the Two Hundred and Sixth Night,She said,It hath reached me,O auspicious King,that when Kamar alZaman acquainted the Lady Budur with what he had seen in his dream,she and he went in to her sire and,telling him what had passed,besought his leave to travel. He gave the Prince the permission he sought;but the Princess said,'O my father,I cannot bear to be parted from him.'Quoth Ghayur,her sire,'Then go thou with him,'and gave her leave to be absent a whole twelvemonth and afterwards to visit him in every year once;so she kissed his hand and Kamar alZaman did the like. Thereupon King Ghayur proceeded to equip his daughter and her bridegroom for the journey,and furnished them with outfit and appointments for the march;and brought out of his stables horses marked with his own brand,blooddromedaries[306] which can journey ten days without water,and prepared a litter for his daughter,besides loading mules and camels with victual;moreover,he gave them slaves and eunuchs to serve them and all manner of travellinggear;and on the day of departure,when King Ghayur took leave of Kamar alZaman,he bestowed on him ten splendid suits of cloth of gold embroidered with stones of price,together with ten riding horses and ten shecamels,and a treasury of money;[307] and he charged him to love and cherish his daughter the Lady Budur. Then the King accompanied them to the farthest limits of his Islands where,going in to his daughter Budur in the litter,he kissed her and strained her to his bosom,weeping and repeating,'O thou who wooest Severance,easy fare!

For loveembrace belongs to loverfriend:

Fare softly! Fortune's nature falsehood is,

And parting shall love's every meeting end.'

Then leaving his daughter,he went to her husband and bade him farewell and kissed him;after which he parted from them and,giving the order for the march he returned to his capital with his troops. The Prince and Princess and their suite fared on without stopping through the first day and the second and the third and the fourth,nor did they cease faring for a whole month till they came to a spacious champaign,abounding in pasturage,where they pitched their tents;and they ate and drank and rested,and the Princess Budur lay down to sleep. Presently,Kamar alZaman went in to her and found her lying asleep clad in a shift of apricotcoloured silk that showed all and everything;and on her head was a coif of goldcloth embroidered with pearls and jewels. The breeze raised her shift which laid bare her navel and showed her breasts and displayed a stomach whiter than snow,each one of whose dimples would contain an ounce of benzoin ointment.[308] At this sight,his love and longing redoubled,and he began reating,'An were it asked me when by hellfire burnt,When flames of heart my vitals hold and hem,'Which wouldst thou chose,say wouldst thou rather them,Or drink sweet cooling draught?' I'd answer,'Them!'

Then he put his hand to the band of her petticoattrousers and drew it and loosed it,for his soul lusted after her,when he saw a jewel,red as dyewood,made fast to the band. He untied it and examined it and,seeing two lines of writing graven thereon,in a character not to be read,marvelled and said in his mind,'Were not this bezel something to her very dear she had not bound it to her trousersband nor hidden it in the most privy and precious place about her person,that she might not be parted from it.

Would I knew what she cloth with this and what is the secret that is in it.'So saying,he took it and went outside the tent to look at it in the light,And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day,and ceased to say her permitted say.

When it was the Two Hundred and Seventh Night,She said,It hath reached me,O auspicious King,that when he took the bezel to look at it in the light,the while he was holding it behold,a bird swooped down on him and,snatching the same from his hand,flew off with it and then lighted on the ground. Thereupon Kamar alZaman fearing to lose the jewel,ran after the bird;but it flew on before him,keeping just out of his reach,and ceased not to draw him on from dale to dale and from hill to hill,till the night starkened and the firmament darkened,when it roosted on a high tree. So Kamar alZaman stopped under the tree confounded in thought and faint for famine and fatigue,and giving himself up for lost,would have turned back,but knew not the way whereby he came,for that darkness had overtaken him. Then he exclaimed,'There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah,the Glorious the Great!';and laying him down under the tree (whereon was the bird) slept till the morning,when he awoke and saw the bird also wake up and fly away. He arose and walked after it,and it flew on little by little before him,after the measure of his faring;at which he smiled and said,'By Allah,a strange thing! Yesterday,this bird flew before me as fast as I could run,and today,knowing that I have awoke tired and cannot run,he flieth after the measure of my faring.