[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

whilst I lay insensible, and she fetched a pan of copper and
setting it on a brazier, poured into it oil of sesame, in which
she fried cheese.[FN139] Then she came up to me and unfastening
my trousers, tied a cord round my cullions and giving it to two
of her women, bade them pull at it. They did so, and I swooned
away and was for excess of pain in a world other than this. Then
she came with a steel scalpel and cut off my yard, so that I
remained like a woman: after which she seared the wound with the
boiling oil and rubbed it with a powder, and I the while
unconscious. When I came to myself, the blood had ceased to flow;
so she bade the damsels unbind me and gave me a cup of wine to
drink. Then said she to me,  Go now to her whom thou hast married
and who grudged me a single night, and the mercy of God be on thy
cousin Azizeh, who discovered not her secret! Indeed she was the
cause of thy preservation, for hadst thou not repeated those
words to me, I had surely slain thee. Rise and go to whom thou
wilt, for thou hadst nothing of mine, save what I have cut off,
and now I have no part in thee, nor have I any further care or
occasion for thee: so begone about thy business and bless thy
cousin s memory! With that, she gave me a push with her foot,
and I rose, hardly able to walk, and went little by little, till
I came to the door of my wife s house I found it open, so I threw
myself within it and fell down in a swoon; whereupon my wife came
out and lifting me up, carried me into the saloon and found that
I was like unto a woman. Then I fell into a deep sleep; but when
I awoke, I found myself thrown down at the gate of the garden. I
rose, groaning for pain and misery, and made my way to my
mother s house, where I found her weeping for me and saying,  O
my son, would I knew where thou art! So I drew near and threw
myself upon her, and when she saw me, she knew that I was ill,
for my face was at once pale and livid. Then I called to mind my
cousin and all the kind offices she had been wont to do me and
knew that she had indeed loved me; so I wept for her and my
mother wept also. Presently, she said to me,  O my son, thy
father is dead. At this my anguish redoubled, and I wept till I
lost my senses. When I came to myself, I looked at the place
where Azizeh had been used to sit and wept anew, till I all but
fainted for excess of grief; and I ceased not to weep and lament
thus till midnight, when my mother said to me,  Thy father has
been dead these ten days.  I shall never think of any one but my
cousin Azizeh, answered I;  and indeed I deserve all that hath
befallen me, in that I abandoned her who loved me so dear.  What
hath befallen thee? asked my mother. So I told her all that had
happened, and she wept awhile, then rose and set meat and drink
before me. I ate a little and drank, after which I repeated my
story to her, and she exclaimed,  Praised be God that she did but
166
this to thee and forbore to slay thee! Then she tended me and
medicined me till I regained my health: and when my recovery was
complete, she said to me,  O my son, I will now bring out to thee
that which thy cousin committed to me in trust for thee; for it
is thine. She made me swear not to give it thee, till I should
see thee recalling her to mind and weeping over her and thine
affections severed from other than her; and now I see these
conditions fulfilled in thee. So she arose and opening a chest,
took out the piece of linen, with the figures of gazelles worked
thereon, which I had given Azizeh; and I opened it and found
written therein the following verses:
Who moved thee, fairest one, to use this rigour of disdain And
slay, with stress of love, the souls that sigh for thee in
vain?
If thou recall me not to mind beyond our parting-day, God knows
the thought of thee with me for ever shall remain!
Thou smitest me with cruel words, that yet are sweet to me: Wilt
thou one day, though but in dreams, to look upon me deign?
I had not thought the ways of Love were languishment and woe And
stress of soul until, alas! to love thee I was fain.
I knew not weariness till I the captive of thine eyes Became and
all my soul was bound in passion s fatal chain.
Even my foes have ruth on me and pity my distress: But thou, O
heart of steel, wilt ne er have mercy on my pain.
By God, although I die, I ll ne er forget thee, O my hope, Nor
comfort take, though life itself for love should waste and
wane!
When I read these verses, I wept sore and buffeted my face; then
I unfolded the scroll, and there fell from it another. I opened
it and found these words written therein:  Know, O my cousin,
that I acquit thee of my blood and I beseech God to make accord
between thee and her whom thou lovest: but if aught befall thee
through the daughter of Delileh the crafty, return thou not to
her neither resort to any other woman and bear thine affliction
patiently, for were not the ordained term of thy life a long one,
thou hadst perished long ago: but praised be God, who hath
appointed my last day before thine! My peace be upon thee;
preserve the cloth with the gazelles figured thereon and let it
not leave thee, for it used to keep me company, whenas thou wert
absent from me; but I conjure thee, by Allah, if thou chance to
fall in with her who wrought these gazelles and it be in thy
power to foregather with her, hold aloof from her and do not let
her approach thee nor marry her; and if thou happen not on her
and find no way to her, look thou company not with any other of
her sex. Know that she who wrought these gazelles is the daughter
of the King of the Camphor Islands and every year she works a
like cloth and despatches it to far countries, that her report
and the beauty of her broidery, which none in the world can
167
match, may be bruited abroad, As for thy beloved, the daughter of
Delileh, this cloth came to her hand, and she used to ensnare
folk with it, showing it to them and saying,  I have a sister who
wrought this. But she lied in this saying, may God bring her to
shame! This, then, is my parting counsel to thee, and I have not
charged thee thus, but because I know that, after my death, the
world will be straitened on thee and belike, by reason of this,
thou wilt leave thy native land and wander in foreign countries,
and hearing of her who wrought these figures, be minded to
foregather with her. Then wilt thou remember me and it shall not
avail thee nor wilt thou know my value till after my death.
When I had read the scroll and understood what was written
therein, I fell again to weeping, and my mother wept because I
did; and I ceased not to gaze upon it and weep till nightfall. I
abode thus a whole year, at the end of which time the merchants,
with whom I am in this caravan, prepared to set out from my
native town, and my mother counselled me to equip myself and
journey with them, so haply I might find forgetfulness and my
sorrow cease from me, saying,  Take comfort and put away from
thee this mourning and travel for a year or two or three, till
the caravan returns, when peradventure thy breast may be dilated
and thy heart lightened. She ceased not to persuade me thus, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]