书城公版Volume Seven
22900700000091

第91章

When it was the One Hundred and Eightythird Night,She said,It hath reached me,O auspicious King,that Dahnash changed himself to the form of a flea and bit Kamar alZaman who started from sleep in a fright and rubbed the bitten part,his neck,and scratched it hard because of the smart. Then turning sideways,he found lying by him something whose breath was sweeter than musk and whose skin was softer than cream. Hereat marvelled he with great marvel and he sat up and looked at what lay beside him;when he saw it to be a young lady like an union pearl,or a shining sun,or a dome seen from afar on a well built wall;for she was five feet tall,with a shape like the letter Alif[263],bosomed high and rosy checked;even as saith of her the poet,'Four things which ne'er conjoin,unless it be To storm my vitals and to shed my blood:

Brow white as day and tresses black as night

Cheeks rosy red and lips which smiles o'erflood.'

And also quoth another,'A Moon she rises,Willow wand she waves,

Breathes Ambergris,and gazes,a Gazelle:

Meseems that sorrow woes my heart and wins

And,when she wendeth hastes therein to dwell!'

And when Kamar alZaman saw the Lady Budur,daughter of King Ghayur,and her beauty and comeliness,she was sleeping clad in a shift of Venetian silk,without her petticoattrousers,and wore on her head a kerchief embroidered with gold and set with stones of price:her ears were hung with twin earrings which shone like constellations and round her neck was a collar of union pearls,of size unique,past the competence of any King. When he saw this,his reason was confounded and natural heat began to stir in him;Allah awoke in him the desire of coition and he said to himself,'Whatso Allah willeth,that shall be,and what He willeth not shall never be!'So saying,he put out his hand and,turning her over,loosed the collar of her chemise;then arose before his sight her bosom,with its breasts like double globes of ivory;whereat his inclination for her redoubled and he desired her with exceeding hot desire,He would have awakened her but she would not awake,for Dahnash had made her sleep heavy;so he shook her and moved her,saying,'O my beloved,awake and look on me;I am Kamar alZaman.'But she awoke not,neither moved her head;whereupon he considered her case for a long hour and said to himself,'If I guess aright,this is the damsel to whom my father would have married me and these three years past I have refused her;but Inshallah!God willingas soon as it is dawn,I will say to him,'Marry me to her,that I may enjoy her.''And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

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

Zaman said to himself,'By Allah,when I see dawn I will say to my sire,'Marry me to her that I may enjoy her';nor will I let half the day pass ere I possess her and take my fill of her beauty and loveliness.'Then he bent over Budur to buss her,whereat the Jinniyah Maymunah trembled and was abashed and Dahnash,the Ifrit,was like to fly for joy. But,as Kamar al Zaman was about to kiss her upon the mouth,he was ashamed before Allah and turned away his head and averted his face,saying to his heart,'Have patience.'Then he took thought awhile and said,'I will be patient;haply my father when he was wroth with me and sent me to this jail,may have brought my young lady and made her lie by my side to try me with her,and may have charged her not to be readily awakened when I would arouse her,and may have said to her,'Whatever thing Kamar alZaman do to thee,make me ware thereof';or belike my sire standeth hidden in some stead whence (being himself unseen) he can see all I do with this young lady;and to morrow he will scold me and cry,'How cometh it that thou sayest,I have no mind to marry;and yet thou didst kiss and embrace yonder damsel?' So I will withhold myself lest I be ashamed before my sire;and the right and proper thing to do is not to touch her at this present,nor even to look upon her,except to take from her somewhat which shall serve as a token to me and a memorial of her;that some sign endure between me and her.'Then Kamar alZaman raised the young lady's hand and took from her little finger a sealring worth an immense amount of money,for that its bezel was a precious jewel and around it were graven these couplets,'Count not that I your promises forgot,Despite the length of your delinquencies Be generous,O my lord,to me inclining;Haply your mouth and cheeks these lips may kiss:

By Allah,ne'er will I relinquish you Albe you will transgress love's boundaries.'

Then Kamar alZaman took the sealring from the little finger of Queen Budur and set it on his own;then,turning his back to her,went to sleep.[264] When Maymunah the Jinniyah saw this,she was glad and said to Dahnash and Kashkash,'Saw ye how my beloved Kamar alZaman bore himself chastely towards this young lady?

Verily,this was of the perfection of his good gifts;for observe you twain how he looked on her and noted her beauty and loveliness,and yet embraced her not neither kissed her nor put his hand to her,but turned his back and slept.'Answered they,'Even so!'Thereupon Maymunah changed herself into a flea and entering into the raiment of Budur,the loved of Dahnash,crept up her calf and came upon her thigh and,reaching a place some four carats[265] below her navel,there bit her. Thereupon she opened her eyes and sitting up in bed,saw a youth lying beside her and breathing heavily in his sleep,the loveliest of Almighty Allah's creatures,with eyes that put to shame the fairest Houris of Heaven;and a mouth like Solomon's seal,whose water was sweeter to the taste and more efficacious than a theriack,and lips the colour of coralstone,and cheeks like the blood red anemone,even as saith one,describing him in these couplets,'My mind's withdrawn from Zaynab and Nawar[266]By rosy cheeks that growth of myrtle bear;I love a fawn,a tunicvested boy,And leave the love of braceletwearing Fair: