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rhetoric and mathematics and the making of talismans and
calendars and the Cabala, and I understand all these branches of
knowledge thoroughly. But bring me ink-horn and paper, and I will
write thee a letter that will profit thee at Baghdad and enable
thee to dispense with passports. When the merchant heard this,
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he cried out,  Excellent! Excellent! Happy he in whose palace
thou shalt be! Then he brought her ink-horn and paper and a pen
of brass and kissed the earth before her, to do her honour. She
took the pen and wrote the following verses:
 What ails me that sleep hath forsaken my eyes and gone astray?
Have you then taught them to waken, after our parting day!
How comes it your memory maketh the fire in my heart to rage?
Is t thus with each lover remembers a dear one far away?
How sweet was the cloud of the summer, that watered our days of
yore!  Tis flitted, before of its pleasance my longing I
could stay.
I sue to the wind and beg it to favour the slave of love, The
wind that unto the lover doth news of you convey.
A lover to you complaineth, whose every helper fails. Indeed, in
parting are sorrows would rend the rock in sway.
 These words are from her whom melancholy destroys and whom
watching hath wasted; in her darkness there are no lights found,
and she knows not night from day. She tosses from side to side on
the couch of separation and her eyes are blackened with the
pencils of sleeplessness; she watches the stars and strains her
sight into the darkness: verily, sadness and emaciation have
consumed her and the setting forth of her case would be long. No
helper hath she but tears and she reciteth the following verses:
 No turtle warbles on the branch, before the break of morn, But
stirs in me a killing grief, a sadness all forlorn.
No lover, longing for his loves, complaineth of desire, But with
a doubled stress of woe my heart is overborne.
Of passion I complain to one who hath no ruth on me. How soul and
body by desire are, one from other, torn!
Then her eyes brimmed over with tears, and she wrote these verses
also:
 Love-longing, the day of our parting, my body with mourning
smote, And severance from my eyelids hath made sleep far
remote.
I am so wasted for yearning and worn for sickness and woe, That,
were it not for my speaking, thou dst scarce my presence
note.
Then she wept and wrote at the foot of the scroll,  This is from
her who is far from her people and her native land, the
sorrowful-hearted Nuzhet ez Zeman. She folded the letter and
gave it to the merchant, who took it and reading what was written
in it, rejoiced and exclaimed,  Glory to Him who fashioned thee!
Then he redoubled in kindness and attention to her all that day;
and at nightfall, he sallied out to the market and bought food,
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wherewith he fed her; after which he carried her to the bath and
said to the tire-woman,  As soon as thou hast made an end of
washing her head, clothe her and send and let me know. Meanwhile
he fetched food and fruit and wax candles and set them on the
dais in the outer room of the bath; and when the tire-woman had
done washing her, she sent to tell the merchant, and Nuzhet ez
Zeman went out to the outer room, where she found the tray spread
with food and fruit. So she ate, and the tire-woman with her, and
gave what was left to the people and keeper of the bath. Then she
slept till the morning, and the merchant lay the night in a place
apart. When he awoke, he came to her and waking her, presented
her with a shift of fine silk, a kerchief worth a thousand
dinars, a suit of Turkish brocade and boots embroidered with red
gold and set with pearls and jewels. Moreover, he hung in each of
her ears a circlet of gold, with a fine pearl therein, worth a
thousand dinars, and threw round her neck a collar of gold, with
bosses of garnet and a chain of amber beads, that hung down
between her breasts to her middle. Now this chain was garnished
with ten balls and nine crescents and each crescent had in its
midst a beazel of ruby and each ball a beazel of balass ruby. The
worth of the chain was three thousand dinars and each of the
balls was worth twenty thousand dirhems, so that her dress in all
was worth a great sum of money. When she had put these on, the
merchant bade her make her toilet, and she adorned herself to the
utmost advantage. Then he bade her follow him and walked on
before her through the streets, whilst the people wondered at her
beauty and exclaimed,  Blessed be God, the most excellent
Creator! O fortunate man to whom she shall belong! till they
reached the Sultan s palace; when he sought an audience of
Sherkan and kissing the earth before him, said,  O august King, I
have brought thee a rare gift, unmatched in this time and richly
covered with beauty and good qualities.  Let me see it, said
Sherkan. So the merchant went out and returning with Nuzhet ez
Zeman, made her stand before Sherkan. When the latter beheld her,
blood drew to blood, though he had never seen her, having only
heard that he had a sister called Nuzhet ez Zeman and a brother
called Zoulmekan and not having made acquaintance with them, in
his jealousy of them, because of the succession. Then said the
merchant,  O King, not only is she without peer in her time for
perfection of beauty and grace, but she is versed to boot in all
learning, sacred and profane, besides the art of government and
the abstract sciences. Quoth Sherkan,  Take her price, according
to what thou gavest for her, and go thy ways.  I hear and obey,
replied the merchant;  but first I would have thee write me
a patent, exempting me for ever from paying tithe on my
merchandise.  I will do this, said Sherkan;  but first tell me
what you paid for her. Quoth the merchant,  I bought her for a
hundred thousand dinars, and her clothes cost me as much more.
When the Sultan heard this, he said,  I will give thee more than
this for her, and calling his treasurer, said to him,  Give this
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merchant three hundred and twenty thousand dinars; so will he
have a hundred and twenty thousand dinars profit. Then he
summoned the four Cadis and paid him the money in their presence;
after which he said to them,  I call you to witness that I free
this my slave-girl and purpose to marry her. So the Cadis drew
up the act of enfranchisement, and the Sultan scattered much gold
on the heads of those present, which was picked up by the pages
and eunuchs. Then they drew up the contract of marriage between
Sherkan and Nuzhet ez Zeman, after which he bade write the
merchant a perpetual patent, exempting him from tax and tithe
upon his merchandise and forbidding all and several to do him let
or hindrance in all his government, and bestowed on him a
splendid dress of honour. Then all who were present retired, and
there remained but the Cadis and the merchant; whereupon quoth
Sherkan to the former,  I wish you to hear such discourse from
this damsel as may prove her knowledge and accomplishment in all
that this merchant avouches of her, that we may be certified of
the truth of his pretensions.  Good, answered they; and he
commanded the curtains to be drawn before Nuzhet ez Zeman and her [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]