书城公版Volume Seven
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第103章

Yet Kamar al Zaman paid no heed to them,but cried out at the top of his voice,saying,'I am the Doctor,the Scrivener! I am the Astrologer,the Calculator!'And all the townsfolk forbade him from this,but he regarded them not at all,saying in his mind,'None knoweth desire save whoso suffereth it.'Then he began again to cry his loudest,shouting,'I am the Scrivener,I am the Astrologer!'And Shahrazad per ceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

When it was the Two Hundred and Third Night,She said,It hath reached me,O auspicious King,that Kamar al

Zaman in no wise heeded the words of the citizens,but continued to cry out,'I am the Calculator! I am the Astrologer!'Thereupon all the townsfolk were wroth with him and said to him,'Thou art nothing but an imbecile,silly,selfwilled lad! Have pity on shine own youth and tender years and beauty and loveliness.'But he cried all the more,'I am the Astrologer,I am the Calculator!

Is there any one that seeketh?'As he was thus crying and the people forbidding him,behold,King Ghayur heard his voice and the clamour of the lieges and said to his Wazir,'Go down and bring me yon Astrologer.'So the Wazir,went down in haste,and taking Kamar alZaman from the midst of the crowd led him up to the King;and when in the presence he kissed the ground and began versifying,'Eight glories meet,all,all conjoined in thee,Whereby may Fortune aye thy servant be:

Lere,lordliness,grace,generosity;

Plain words,deep meaning,honour,victory!'

When the King looked upon him,he seated him by his side and said to him,'By Allah,O my son,an thou be not an astrologer,venture not thy life nor comply with my condition;for I have bound myself that whoso goeth in to my daughter and healeth her not of that which hath befallen her I will strike off his head;

but whoso healeth her him I will marry to her. So let not thy beauty and loveliness delude thee: for,by Allah! and again,by Allah! If thou cure her not,I will assuredly cut off thy head.'

And Kamar alZaman replied,'This is thy right;and I consent,for I wot of this ere came I hither.'Then King Ghayur took the Kazis to witness against him and delivered him to the eunuch,saying,'Carry this one to the Lady Budur.'So the eunuch took him by the hand and led him along the passage;but Kamar alZaman outstripped him and pushed on before,whilst the eunuch ran after him,saying,'Woe to thee! Hasten not to shine own ruin: never yet saw I astrologer so eager for his proper destruction;but thou weetest not what calamities are before thee.'Thereupon Kamar alZaman turned away his face from the eunuch,And Shah razed perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the Two Hundred and Fourth Night,She said,It hath reached me,O auspicious King,that when the eunuch thus addressed Kamar alZaman,'Patience,and no indecent hurry!'the Prince turned away his face and began repeating these couplets,'A Sage,I feel a fool before thy charms;Distraught,I wot not what the words I say:

If say I 'Sun,' away thou dost not pass

From eyes of me,while suns go down with day:

Thou hast completed Beauty,in whose praise

Speechmakers fail,and talkers lose their way.'

Then the eunuch stationed Kamar alZaman behind the curtain of the Princess's door and the Prince said to him,'Which of the two ways will please thee more,treat and cure thy lady from here or go in and heal her within the curtain?'The eunuch marvelled at his words and answered,'An thou heal her from here it were better proof of thy skill.'Upon this Kamar alZaman sat down behind the curtain and,taking out ink case,pen and paper,wrote the following: 'This is the writ of one whom passion swayeth,and whom longing waylayeth and wakeful misery slayeth one who despaireth of living and looketh for naught but dying with whose mourning heart nor comforter nor helper taketh part One whose sleepless eyes none succoureth from anxieties whose day is passed in fire and his night in torturing desire whose body is wasted for much emaciation and no messenger from his beloved bringeth him consolation.'And after this he indited the following couplets,'I write with heart devoted to thy thought,

And eyelids chafed by tears of blood they bled;

And body clad,by loving pine and pain,

In shirt of leanness,and worn down to thread,To thee complain I of Love's tormentry,

Which ousted hapless Patience from her stead:

A toi! show favour and some mercy deign,

For Passion's cruel hands my vitals shred.'

And beneath his lines he wrote these cadenced sentences,'The heart's pain is removed by union with the beloved and whomso his lover paineth only Allah assaineth! If we or you have wrought deceit may the deceiver win defeat! There is naught goodlier than a lover who keeps faith with the beloved who works him scathe.'Then,by way of subion,he wrote,'From the distracted and despairing man whom love and longing trepan from the lover under passion's ban the prisoner of transport and distraction from this Kamar alZaman son of Shahriman to the peerless one of the fair Houris the pearlunion to the Lady Budur daughter of King Al Ghayur Know thou that by night I am sleepless and by day in distress consumed with increasing wasting and pain and longing and love unfain abounding in sighs with tear flooded eyes by passion captive ta'en of Desire the slain with heart seared by the parting of us twain the debtor of longing bane,of sickness cupcompanion I am the sleepless one,who never closeth eye the slave of love,whose tears run never dry for the fire of my heart is still burning and never hidden is the flame of my yearning.'

Then on the margin Kamar alZaman wrote this admired verse,'Salem from graces hoarded by my Lord

To her,who holds my heart and soul in hoard!'

And also these,'Pray'ee grant me some words from your lips,belike

Such mercy may comfort and cool these eyne:

From the stress of my love and my pine for you,

I make light of what makes me despised,indign: