The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume V Part 2

From the camp, who th' afflicted heart shall tend?"

And after thus reciting he wept till he wetted the hard dry ground; but anon without loss of time he rose and fared on again over waste and wold, till there came out upon him a lion, with a neck buried in tangled mane, a head the bigness of a dome, a mouth wider than the door thereof and teeth like elephants'

tusks. Now when Uns al-Wujud saw him, he gave himself up for lost, and turning[FN#44] towards the Temple of Meccah, p.r.o.nounced the professions of the faith and prepared for death. He had read in books that whoso will flatter the lion, beguileth him,[FN#45]

for that he is readily duped by smooth speech and gentled by being glorified; so he began and said, "O Lion of the forest! O Lord of the waste! O terrible Leo! O father of fighters! O Sultan of wild beasts! Behold, I am a lover in longing, whom pa.s.sion and severance have been wronging; since I parted from my dear, I have lost my reasoning gear; wherefore, to my speech do thou give ear and have ruth on my pa.s.sion and hope and fear." When the lion heard this, he drew back from him and sitting down on his hindquarters, raised his head to him and began to frisk tail and paws; which when Uns al-Wujud saw, he recited these couplets,

"Lion of the wold wilt thou murther me, *

Ere I meet her who doomed me to slavery?

I am not game and I bear no fat; *

For the loss of my love makes me sickness dree; And estrangement from her hath so worn me down *

I am like a shape in a shroud we see.

O thou sire of spoils,[FN#46] O thou lion of war, *

Give not my pains to the blamer's gree.

I burn with love, I am drowned in tears *

For a parting from lover, sore misery!

And my thoughts of her in the murk of night *

For love hath make my being unbe."

As he had finished his lines the lion rose,--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

When it was the Three Hundred and Seventy-fourth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that as Uns al- Wujud ended his lines, the lion arose and stalked slowly up to him, with eyes tear-railing and licked him with his tongue, then walked on before him, signing to him as though saying, "Follow me." So he followed him, and the beast ceased not leading him on for a while till he brought him up a mountain, and guided him to the farther side, where he came upon the track of a caravan over the desert, and knew it to be that of Rose-in-Hood and her company. Then he took the trail and, when the lion saw that he knew the track for that of the party which escorted her, he turned back and went his way; whilst Uns al-Wujud walked along the foot-marks day and night, till they brought him to a dashing sea, swollen with clashing surge. The trail led down to the sandy sh.o.r.e and there broke off; whereby he knew that they had taken ship and had continued their journey by water. So he lost hope of finding his lover and with hot tears he repeated these couplets,

"Far is the fane and patience faileth me; *

How can I seek them[FN#47] o'er the abyssmal sea; Or how be patient, when my vitals burn *

For love of them, and sleep waxed insomny?

Since the sad day they left the home and fled, *

My heart's consumed by love's ardency: Sayhun, Jayhun,[FN#48] Euphrates-like my tears, *

Make flood no deluged rain its like can see: Mine eyelids chafed with running tears remain, *

My heart from fiery sparks is never free; The hosts of love and longing pressed me *

And made the hosts of patience break and flee.

I've risked my life too freely for their love; *

And risk of life the least of ills shall be.

Allah ne'er punish eye that saw those charms *

Enshrined, and pa.s.sing full moon's brilliancy!

I found me felled by fair wide-opened eyes, *

Which pierced my heart with stringless archery: And soft, lithe, swaying shape enraptured me *

As sway the branches of the willow-tree: Wi' them I covet union that I win, *

O'er love-pains cark and care, a mastery.

For love of them aye, morn and eve I pine, *

And doubt all came to me from evil eyne."

And when his lines were ended he wept, till he swooned away, and abode in his swoon a long while; but as soon as he came to himself, he looked right and left and seeing no one in the desert, he became fearful of the wild beasts; so he clomb to the top of a high mountain, where he heard the voice of a son of Adam speaking within a cave. He listened and lo! they were the accents of a devotee, who had forsworn the world and given himself up to pious works and worship. He knocked thrice at the cavern-door, but the hermit made him no answer, neither came forth to him; wherefore he groaned aloud and recited these couplets.

"What pathway find I my desire t'obtain, *

How 'scape from care and cark and pain and bane?

All terrors join to make me old and h.o.a.r *

Of head and heart, ere youth from me is ta'en: Nor find I any aid my pa.s.sion, nor *

A friend to lighten load of bane and pain.

How great and many troubles I've endured! *

Fortune hath turned her back I see unfain.

Ah mercy, mercy on the lover's heart, *

Doomed cup of parting and desertion drain!

A fire is in his heart, his vitals waste, *

And severance made his reason vainest vain.

How dread the day I came to her abode *

And saw the writ they wrote on doorway lain!

I wept, till gave I earth to drink my grief; *

But still to near and far[FN#49] I did but feign: Then strayed I till in waste a lion sprang *

On me, and but for flattering words had slain: I soothed him: so he spared me and lent me aid, *

He too might haply of love's taste complain.

O devotee, that idlest in thy cave, *

Meseems eke thou hast learned Love's might and main; But if, at end of woes, with them I league, *

Straight I'll forget all suffering and fatigue."

Hardly had he made an end of these verses when, behold! the door of the cavern opened and he heard one say, "Alas, the pity of it!"[FN#50] So he entered and saluted the devotee, who returned his salam and asked him, "What is thy name?" Answered the young man, "Uns al-Wujud." "And what caused thee to come hither?" quoth the hermit. So he told him his story in its entirety, omitting naught of his misfortunes; whereat he wept and said, "O Uns al- Wujud, these twenty years have I pa.s.sed in this place, but never beheld I any man here, until yesterday, when I heard a noise of weeping and lamentation and, looking forth in the direction of the sound, saw many people and tents pitched on the sea-sh.o.r.e; and the party at once proceeded to build a ship, in which certain of them embarked and sailed over the waters. Then some of the crew returned with the ship and breaking it up, went their way; and I suspect that those who embarked in the ship and returned not, are they whom thou seekest. In that case, O Uns al-Wujud, thy grief must needs be great and sore and thou art excusable, though never yet was lover but suffered love-longing." Then he recited these couplets,

"Uns al-Wujud, dost deem me fancy-free, *

When pine and longing slay and quicken me?

I have known love and yearning from the years *

Since mother-milk I drank, nor e'er was free.

Long struggled I with Love, till learnt his might; *

Ask thou of him, he'll tell with willing gree.

Love-sick and pining drank I pa.s.sion-cup, *

And well-nigh perished in mine agony.

Strong was I, but my strength to weakness turned, *

And eye-sword brake through Patience armoury: Hope not to win love-joys, without annoy; *

Contrary ever links with contrary.

But fear not change from lover true; be true *

Unto thy wish, some day thine own 'twill be.

Love hath forbidden to his votaries *

Relinquishment as deadliest heresy."

The eremite, having ended his verse, rose and, coming up to Uns al-Wujud, embraced him,--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the Three Hundred and Seventy-fifth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the eremite having ended his verse, rose and coming up to Uns al-Wujud embraced him, and they wept together, till the hills rang with their cries and they fell down fainting. When they revived, they swore brotherhood[FN#51] in Allah Almighty; after which said Uns al-Wujud, "This very night will I pray to G.o.d and seek of Him direction[FN#52] anent what thou shouldst do to attain thy desire." Thus it was with them; but as regards Rose-in-Hood, when they brought her to the mountain and set her in the castle and she beheld its ordering, she wept and exclaimed, "By Allah, thou art a goodly place, save that thou lackest in thee the presence of the beloved!"[FN#53] Then seeing birds in the island, she bade her people set snares for them and put all they caught in cages within the castle; and they did so. But she sat at a lattice and bethought her of what had pa.s.sed, and desire and pa.s.sion and distraction redoubled upon her, till she burst into tears and repeated these couplets,

"O to whom now, of my desire complaining sore, shall I *

Bewail my parting from my fere compelled thus to fly?

Flames rage within what underlies my ribs, yet hide them I *

In deepest secret dreading aye the jealous hostile spy: I am grown as lean, attenuate as any pick of tooth,[FN#54] *

By sore estrangement, absence, ardour, ceaseless sob and sigh.

Where is the eye of my beloved to see how I'm become *

Like tree stripped bare of leaf.a.ge left to linger and to die.

They tyrannised over me whom they confined in place *

Whereto the lover of my heart may never draw him nigh: I beg the Sun for me to give greetings a thousandfold, *

At time of rising and again when setting from the sky, To the beloved one who shames a full moon's loveliness, *