The Arabian Nights II (37 page)

The king took it and turned it over, then, turning to his son, said, “There is a great and deep mystery behind this ring. What happened to you with that girl last night is a puzzle, and I do not know how this intruder came in upon us, nor who caused all this, except the vizier. For God's sake, son, be patient, and God may relieve you of this distress and bring you great comfort. As the poet said,

Perhaps my fate will his own bridle turn

And bring good fortune, o my fickle fate,

Replacing past ills with present good deeds,

My needs to answer and my hopes elate.

Son, now I am certain that you are not insane, but no one can solve your problem save God.” Qamar al-Zaman said to his father, “For God's sake, father, search after that girl and bring her quickly back to
me; otherwise, I will die of grief.” Then, looking at his father, he recited passionately the following verses,

If your vow of reunion be not true,

At least in sleep your longed-for visit make.

They said, “How can a ghost in a dream visit one

Who is deprived of sleep and lies awake?”

When he finished these verses, he looked at his father with submission and dejection, and, with tears streaming from his eyes, recited the following verses,

Beware her beautiful bewitching eyes,

For the smitten can't his heart extricate;

Nor be deluded by her tender words,

For passion does the mind intoxicate,

So soft she is that if the rose touches her cheek,

It makes her cry, and her eyes with tears flow,

And if the breezes pass by while she sleeps,

They pick her scent and with her fragrance blow.

Her necklaces echo the music of her feet,

While on her wrists the bracelets speechless sit,

And when her anklet her earrings wishes to kiss,

The eyes of love does not her merits miss.

One critic sees my love and censures me,

But seeing without insight is a vain enterprise.

God curse you, critic, for you are not fair;

To such a beauty pay homage all eyes.

When Qamar al-Zaman finished reciting these verses, the vizier at last said to the king, “O King of the age, how long will you remain sequestered with your son from your troops? Your absence from the officers of the state may cause disorder in the kingdom. When the wise man is afflicted with a malady, he must seek to cure the cause. It is my advice that you remove your son to the pavilion in the palace overlooking the sea and retire there with him, appointing two days of the week, namely Thursday and Monday, for the procession and the assembly, when you will be attended by the princes and viziers and chamberlains and deputies and the officers and chief men of the state and captains, together with the rest of your troops and subjects. On those two days, they will present you with their cases, and you will answer their needs and judge between them and take and give and issue your commands. The rest of the week, you will spend with your son, Qamar al-Zaman, and you will continue this way until God grant you and grant him relief. O King, do not think yourself safe from the
accidents of fate or the calamities of life, for the wise man is always on guard. How well the poet put it, when he said,

You thought well of the days when they were good,

Oblivious to the ills fate brings to one.

You were deluded by the peaceful nights,

Yet in the peace of night does sorrow stun.

O people, who have been favored by fate,

The turns of fate you should anticipate.

When the king heard the vizier's advice, it impressed him as sound and beneficial to him and, fearing disorder in the state, he at once gave orders that his son be removed to the pavilion in the palace overlooking the sea. The access to it was over a causeway, sixty feet wide, in the middle of the sea. Around it were windows overlooking the sea, its floor was paved with colored marbles, and its ceiling was painted with the richest colors and decorated with gold and lapis lazuli. They spread silk carpets for Qamar al-Zaman, covered its walls with brocade, and hung curtains bespangled with jewels. Qamar al-Zaman sat there, languishing with passion, depressed, sleepless, emaciated in body, and pallid in color. His father the king sat at his head, grieving for him, and every Monday and Thursday he gave the viziers and princes and chamberlains and deputies and officers of state and any of his troops and subjects who wished to see him permission to come in to him in the pavilion. And they came in to perform their tasks, staying with him till the end of the day, when they departed, and he returned to his son, with whom he stayed day and night. Thus he lived for some time.

As for Princess Budur, the daughter of King Ghaiur, Lord of the Seven Islands and Seven Palaces, by the time the two demons transported her back and laid her in her bed, only three hours were left of the night. When it was dawn, she awoke from her sleep and, sitting up, looked to the right and left but did not find her beloved, who had been lying in her lap. At that moment, she lost her mind, shook with agitation, and uttered a loud cry, which awakened all her servants, nurses, and attendants, who came in to her, and their chief advanced toward her and asked, “O my lady, what has happened to you?” Princess Budur replied, “Wretched old woman, where is my beloved, the beautiful young man who slept in my lap last night? Tell me, where has he gone?” When the attendant heard these words, the light turned to darkness before her eyes, and she was terrified of the princess's power and said, “O my lady Budur, what unseemly talk is this?” Princess Budur said, “Damn you, old woman, where is my beloved, the beautiful young man, with the shining face and the black eyes and the joined
eyebrows, who spent the night with me from nightfall till near daybreak?” The attendant replied, “By God, I saw neither young man nor anyone else. For God's sake, my lady, stop this unseemly jesting, lest we be all undone, for your father may hear it, and who will deliver us from his hand?” Princess Budur said, “A young man spent last night with me, and he had the most beautiful face.” The attendant said, “May God preserve your mind! There was no one with you last night.” Princess Budur looked at her hand and, seeing instead of her own ring, Qamar al-Zaman's ring on her finger, said to the attendant, “Damn you, deceitful woman! Do you lie to me, tell me that no one spent last night with me, and swear by God falsely?” The nurse said, “By God, I never lied to you nor swore falsely.” That reply enraged Princess Budur, who drew a sword, struck the nurse with it, and killed her. The eunuch and the maids and attendants cried out at her and, running to her father, acquainted him with the situation.

The king came immediately to his daughter and asked her, “O daughter, what is the matter with you?” She said, “O father, where is the young man who was sleeping by my side last night?” She looked to the right and left in a frenzy, and tore her dress all the way to the hem. When her father saw this, he ordered the servants and attendants to seize her, and they seized her and bound her and, putting an iron collar around her neck, chained her to a window of the palace.

When her father saw what happened to Princess Budur, he was depressed, for he loved her and could not bear to see her in that condition. He therefore summoned the astrologers, the doctors, and the magicians and said to them, “Whoever cures my daughter of her condition, I will marry him to her and give him half of my kingdom, and whoever fails to cure her, I will strike off his head and hang it over her palace gate.” So the king struck off the head of whoever went in to her and did not cure her, and hung each head over the palace gate until he beheaded forty doctors because of her. So everyone stayed away from her, and all the doctors failed to cure her, and her malady puzzled the men of science, as well as the men of magic. In the meantime, whenever Princess Budur felt the intensity of love and the fire of passion, she wept and recited verses like the following,

My love for you, my moon, is but my foe;

The thought of you at night, a friend, does with me dwell.

I spend the dark night with fire in my breast,

That burns and blazes like the fire of Hell.

I am afflicted by longing and love,

And malady and pain that none can quell.

And the following,

“May peace be on you wherever you are,”

These words I said to those for whom I long.

I say, “Peace on you,” not bidding adieu

But welcome that my love does e'er prolong.

I love you and I love your dear abode,

But the road to my wish is hard and long.

When she finished reciting those verses, she wept until her eyes smarted and her cheeks wilted. In this plight she lived for three years.

It happened that she had a foster-brother, whose name was Marzawan and who had been absent from her all this time, traveling in far countries. He loved her with a great love surpassing that of brothers, and when he came back, he went to see his mother and inquired about his foster-sister, Princess Budur. His mother said to him, “O my son, your sister has been afflicted with madness and has spent the past three years with an iron collar around her neck, and all the doctors have failed to cure her.” When Marzawan heard this, he said, “I must go to see her; perhaps I will discover what ails her and be able to cure her.” His mother replied, “Yes, you must go to see her, but wait till tomorrow, so that I may find a way.” Then she went to the palace of Princess Budur and, meeting the eunuch, gave him a present and said, “I have a married daughter who was brought up with Princess Budur, and when the princess became ill, she became concerned about her. I would like to ask you a favor, to let her see the princess for a while then return as she came, and no one will ever know about it.” The eunuch said, “This is not possible except at night. After the king comes to see his daughter and leaves, come in with your daughter.” The old woman kissed the eunuch's hand and went home.

The following day, as soon as it was dark, she dressed her son Marzawan in women's clothes and, taking him by the hand, entered the palace and went to the eunuch, after the king had departed from his daughter. When the eunuch saw her, he got up and said, “Go in, but don't stay too long.” When they went in, Marzawan saw Princess Budur in that condition, and he saluted her, after his mother had taken off his women's clothes. Then he took out the books he had brought with him and lighted a candle, and when Princess Budur saw him, she recognized him and said to him, “O my brother, you have been traveling, and we have not had any news of you.” He said, “This is true, but God has brought me back safely. I had intended to travel again, and nothing would have prevented me, save the news of your illness, which made my heart ache for you and brought me here, in order that I might discover what ails you and be able to cure you.” She
said to him, “Brother, do you think it is madness that ails me?” Then she pointed to him and recited the following verses,

They said, “The one you love has made you mad with love.”

I said, “Such madness is only the lover's bliss.

Yes, I am mad, bring me the cause of it,

And if he cure me, blame me not for this.”

When he heard this, Marzawan realized that she was in love and said to her, “Tell me your story, and perhaps God will show me a way to deliver you from your plight.” She said, “O brother, listen to my story. I awoke from my sleep one night, in the last third of the night and, sitting up, saw beside me a most beautiful young man, whose beauty no tongue can describe, as if he were a willow bough or bamboo wand. I thought that my father had ordered him to lie beside me, in order to tempt me by him, for he had consulted me about marriage when the kings asked him for my hand, but I refused. That thought prevented me from awakening him, fearing that if I embraced him, he would tell my father. When I awoke in the morning, I saw his ring on my finger, in place of my own. O my brother, I was taken with him at first sight, and because of my great love and longing for him, I have not been able to sleep and have done nothing but cry and shed heavy tears and recite verses night and day.” Then she wept profusely and recited the following verses,

Love has banished my pleasures and delights,

For that fawn in my heart enjoys to play.

To him the blood of lovers is a trifling thing;

For him my poor soul aches and pines away.

I'm jealous for him of my sight and thought,

Thus I fear myself, as part watches part.

His eyelashes their deadly arrows shoot

And find their way and dart into the heart.

Will I see him again before I die?

Only if there is luck in this sad life.

I try to hide my feelings, but my tears

Reveal to the spy my anguish and strife.

He is so close, yet he is hard to get,

So far, yet I can him never forget.

Then she said, “O my brother, how will you help me in my affliction?” Marzawan bowed his head a while wondering and not knowing what to do; then he raised it and said to her, “I believe everything you have told me, though the story of that young man puzzles me, but I will travel through every country and search for your cure. Perhaps
God will accomplish it through me. Be patient and stop worrying.” He bade her farewell, praying that she might be granted endurance, and left her, while she repeated the following verses,

Your image in my thought does like a pilgrim fare,

Though from my dwelling how distant you are!

My wishes bring you closer to my heart,

But from the watcher's eye lightning is far.

O leave me not, for you are my eyes' light,

And in your absence all is darkness in my sight.

Marzawan returned to his mother's house, where he spent the night, and in the morning, he prepared himself for his journey and departed. He traveled for a whole month from island to island and from city to city, asking for information that might help him find a cure for his sister's ailment, and everywhere he went, he heard it said that Princess Budur, daughter of King Ghaiur, had been afflicted by madness. He continued his search until he came to a city called al-Tayrab, where he heard that Qamar al-Zaman, son of King Shahraman, was sick and that he was suffering from melancholy and madness. When Marzawan heard this, he asked some of the people of the city the name of the prince's capital and was told that it was in the Khalidan Islands and that it was a whole month's journey by sea and six by land.