The Book Of The Thousand Nights And A Night, Vol 1 Page-139

The Book Of The Thousand Nights And A Night, Vol 1

A plain and literal translation of the arabian nights entertainments

said, “O youth, Fate had decreed for us the happiest of lives, safe from all the chances and changes of Time, till thou camest to us, when troubles fell upon us. Would to Heaven we had never seen thee and the foul face of thee! For we took pity on thee and thereby we have lost our all. I have on thy account first lost my daughter who to me was well worth an hundred men, secondly I have suffered that which befel me by reason of the fire and the loss of my teeth, and my Eunuch also was slain. I blame thee not, for it was out of thy power to prevent this: the doom of Allah was on thee as well as on us and thanks be to the Almighty for that my daughter delivered thee, albeit thereby she lost her own life! Go forth now, O my son, from this my city, and suffice thee what hath befallen us through thee, even although ‘twas decreed for us. Go forth in peace; and if I ever see thee again I will surely slay thee.” And he cried out at me. So I went forth from his presence, O my lady, weeping bitterly and hardly believing in my escape and knowing not whither I should wend. And I recalled all that had befallen me, my meeting the tailor, my love for the damsel in the palace beneath the earth, and my narrow escape from the Ifrit, even after he had determined to do me die; and how I had entered the city as an ape and was now leaving it a man once more. Then I gave thanks to Allah and said, “My eye and not my life!” and before leaving the place I entered the bath and shaved my poll and beard and mustachios and eye brows; and cast ashes on my head and donned the coarse black woollen robe of a Kalandar. Then I fared forth, O my lady, and every day I pondered all the calamities which had betided me, and I wept and repeated these couplets:— “I am distraught, yet verily His ruth abides with me, * Tho’ round me gather hosts of ills, whence come I cannot see: Patient I’ll be till Patience self with me impatient wax; * Patient for ever till the Lord fulfil my destiny: Patient I’ll bide without complaint, a wronged and vanquish” man; * Patient as sunparcht wight that spans the desert’s sandy sea: Patient I’ll be till Aloe’s[FN#254] self unwittingly allow * I’m patient under bitterer things than bitterest alo�: No bitterer things than aloes or than patience for mankind, Yet bitterer than the twain to me were Patience’treachery: My sere and seamed and seared brow would dragoman my sore