书城公版Volume Seven
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第87章

Now when Maymunah saw him,she pronounced the formula of praise,[243] and said,'Blessed be Allah,the best of Creators!'for she was of the truebelieving Jinn;and she stood awhile gazing on his face,exclaiming and envying the youth his beauty and loveliness. And she said in herself,'By Allah! I will do no hurt to him nor let any harm him;nay,from all of evil will I ransom him,for this fair face deserveth not but that folk should gaze upon it and for it praise the Lord. Yet how could his family find it in their hearts to leave him in such desert place where,if one of our Marids came upon him at this hour,he would assuredly slay him.'Then the Ifritah Maymunah bent over him and kissed him between the eyes,and presently drew back the sheet over his face which she covered up;and after this she spread her wings and soaring into the air,flew upwards. And after rising high from the circle of the saloon she ceased not winging her way through air and ascending skywards till she drew near the heaven of this world,the lowest of the heavens. And behold,she heard the noisy flapping of wings cleaving the welkin and,directing herself by the sound,she found when she drew near it that the noise came from an Ifrit called Dahnash. So she swooped down on him like a sparrowhawk and,when he was aware of her and knew her to be Maymunah,the daughter of the King of the Jinn,he feared her and his sidemuscles quivered;and he implored her forbearance,saying,I conjure thee by the Most Great and August Name and by the most noble talisman graven upon the sealring of Solomon,entreat me kindly and harm me not!'When she heard these words her heart inclined to him and she said,'Verily,thou conjurest me,O accursed,with a mighty conjuration.

Nevertheless,I will not let thee go,till thou tell me whence thou comest at this hour.'He replied,'O Princess,Know that I come from the uttermost end of Chinaland and from among the Islands,and I will tell thee of a wonderful thing I have seen this night. If thou kind my words true,let me wend my way and write me a patent under thy hand and with thy sign manual that I

am thy freedman,so none of the Jinnhosts,whether of the upper who fly or of the lower who walk the earth or of those who dive beneath the waters,do me let or hindrance.'Rejoined Maymunah,'And what is it thou hast seen this night,O liar,O accursed!

Tell me without leasing and think not to escape from my hand with falses,for I swear to thee by the letters graven upon the bezel of the sealring of Solomon David son (on both of whom be peace!),except thy speech be true,I will pluck out thy feathers with mine own hand and strip off thy skin and break thy bones!'

Quoth the Ifrit Dahnash son of Shamhurish[244] the Flyer,'I accept,O my lady,these conditions.'And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

When it was the One Hundred and Seventyeight Night,She said,It hath reached me,O auspicious King,that Dahnash spoke thus to Maymunah,'I accept,O my lady,these conditions.'

Then he resumed,'Know,O my mistress,that I come tonight from the Islands of the Inland Sea in the parts of China,which are the realms of King Ghayur,lord of the Islands and the Seas and the Seven Palaces. There I saw a daughter of his,than whom Allah hath made none fairer in her time:I cannot picture her to thee,for my tongue would fail to describe her with her due of praise;

but I will name to thee a somewhat of her charms by way of approach. Now her hair is like the nights of disunion and separation and her face like the days of union and delectation;

and right well hath the poet said when picturing her,'She dispread the locks from her head one night,

Showing four fold nights into one night run And she turned her visage towards the moon,

And two moons showed at moment one.'

She hath a nose like the edge of the burnished blade and cheeks like purple wine or anemones bloodred:her lips as coral and carnelian shine and the water of her mouth is sweeter than old wine;its taste would quench Hell's fiery pain. Her tongue is moved by wit of high degree and ready repartee:her breast is a seduction to all that see it (glory be to Him who fashioned it and finished it!);and joined thereto are two upper arms smooth and rounded;even as saith of her the poet AlWalahan,[245]

'She hath wrists which,did her bangles not contain,

Would run from out her sleeves in silvern rain.'

She hath breasts like two globes of ivory,from whose brightness the moons borrow light,and a stomach with little waves as it were a figured cloth of the finest Egyptian linen made by the Copts,with creases like folded scrolls,ending in a waist slender past all power of imagination;based upon back parts like a hillock of blown sand,that force her to sit when she would fief stand,and awaken her,when she fain would sleep,even as saith of her and describeth her the poet,'She hath those hips conjoined by thread of waist,

Hips that o'er me and her too tyrannise My thoughts they daze whene'er I think of them,

And weigh her down whene'er she would uprise.'[246]

And those back parts are upborne by thighs smooth and round and by a calf like a column of pearl,and all this reposeth upon two feet,narrow,slender and pointed like spearblades,[247] the handiwork of the Protector and Requiter,I wonder how,of their littleness,they can sustain what is above them. But I cut short my praises of her charms fearing lest I be tedious.'And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the One Hundred and Seventyninth Night,She said,It hath reached me,O auspicious King,that the Ifrit Dahnash bin Shamhurish said to the Ifritah Maymunah,'Of a truth I cut short my praises fearing lest I be tedious.'Now when Maymunah heard the deion of that Princess and her beauty and loveliness,she stood silent in astonishment;whereupon Dahnash resumed,'The father of this fair maiden is a mighty King,a fierce knight,immersed night and day in fray and fight;