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how much more of this mourning? and I repeated the following
[parody of her] verses:
O tomb, O tomb, has his blackness ceased, or does thy light
indeed, The sheen of the filthy countenance, no more in thee
abound?
O tomb, thou art neither kitchen-stove nor sewer-pool for me! How
comes it then that mire and coal at once in thee are found?
When she heard this, she sprang to her feet and said, Out on
thee, thou dog! it was thou that didst thus with me and woundedst
the beloved of my heart and hast afflicted me and wasted his
youth, so that these three years he hath lain, neither dead nor
alive! O foulest of harlots and filthiest of whorish doxies of
hired slaves, answered I, it was indeed I who did this! And I
drew my sword and made at her to kill her; but she laughed and
said, Avaunt, thou dog! Thinkst thou that what is past can recur
or the dead come back to life? Verily, God has given into my hand
him who did this to me and against whom there was in my heart
fire that might not be quenched and insatiable rage. Then she
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stood up and pronouncing some words I did not understand, said to
me, Let one half of thee by my enchantments become stone and the
other half remain man. And immediately I became as thou seest me
and have remained ever since neither sitting nor standing and
neither dead nor alive. Then she enchanted the city with all its
streets and gardens and turned it into the lake thou wottest of,
and the inhabitants, who were of four religions, Muslims,
Christians, Magians and Jews, she changed to fish of various
colours, the Muslims white, the Christians blue, the Magians red
and the Jews yellow; and the four islands she turned into four
mountains encompassing the lake. Moreover, the condition to which
she has reduced me does not suffice her: but every day she strips
me and gives me a hundred lashes with a whip, so that the blood
runs down me and my shoulders are torn. Then she clothes my upper
half in a shirt of hair-cloth and over that she throws these rich
robes. And he wept and repeated the following verses:
Lord, I submit myself to Thee and eke to Fate, Content, if so
Thou please, to suffer and to wait.
My enemies oppress and torture me full sore: But Paradise at
last, belike, shall compensate.
Though Fate press hard on me, I trust in the Elect,[FN24] The
Accepted One of God, to be my advocate.
With this the King turned to him and said, O youth, after having
rid me of one trouble, thou addest another to me: but tell me,
where is thy wife and where is the wounded slave? The slave
lies in the tomb under the dome, answered the youth, and she is
in the chamber over against the gate. Every day at sunrise, she
comes out and repairs first to me and strips off my clothes and
gives me a hundred strokes with the whip; and I weep and cry out,
but cannot stir to keep her off. When she has done torturing me,
she goes down to the slave with the wine and broth on which she
feeds him; and to-morrow at sunrise she will come. O youth,
rejoined the King, by Allah, I will assuredly do thee a service
by which I shall be remembered and which men shall chronicle to
the end of time! Then he sat down by the youth and talked with
him till nightfall, when they went to sleep. At peep of day, the
King rose and put off his clothes and drawing his sword, repaired
to the mausoleum, where, after noting the paintings of the place
and the candles and Lamps and perfumes burning there, he sought
for the slave till he came upon him and slew him with one blow of
the sword; after which he took the body on his back and threw it
into a well that was in the palace. Then he returned to the dome
and wrapping himself in the black s clothes, lay down in his
place, with his drawn sword by his side. After awhile, the
accursed enchantress came out and, going first to her husband,
stripped him and beat him with the whip, whilst he cried out,
Alas! the state I am in suffices me. Have mercy on me, O my
cousin! But she replied, Didst thou show me any mercy or spare
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my beloved? And beat him till she was tired and the blood ran
from his sides. Then she put the hair shirt on him and the royal
robes over it, and went down to the dome with a goblet of wine
and a bowl of broth in her hands. When she came to the tomb, she
fell a-weeping and wailing and said, O my lord, speak to me!
And repeated the following verse:
How long ere this rigour pass sway and thou relent? Is it not yet
enough of the tears that I have spent?
And she wept and said again, O my lord, speak to me! The King
lowered his voice and knotting his tongue, spoke after the
fashion of the blacks and said, Alack! alack! there is no power
and no virtue but in God the Most High the Supreme! When she
heard this, she screamed out for joy and swooned away; and when
she revived, she said, O my lord, can it be true and didst thou
indeed speak to me? The King made his voice small and said, O
accursed woman, thou deservest not that I should speak to thee!
Why so? asked she; and he replied, Because all day thou
tormentest thy husband and his cries disturb me, and all night
long he calls upon God for help and invokes curses on thee and me
and keeps me awake from nightfall to daybreak and disquiets me;
and but for this, I had been well long ago. This is what has
hindered me from answering thee. Quoth she, With thy leave, I
will release him from his present condition. Do so, said the
King, and rid us of his noise. I hear and obey, answered she,
and going out into the palace, took a cup full of water and spoke
over it certain words, whereupon the water began to boil and
bubble as the cauldron bubbles over the fire. Then she went up to
the young King and sprinkled him with it, saying, By the virtue
of the words I have spoken, if thou art thus by my spells, quit
this shape for thy former one. And immediately he shook and rose
to his feet, rejoicing in his deliverance, and said, I testify
that there is no god but God and that Mohammed is His apostle,
may God bless and preserve him! Then she said to him, Depart
hence and do not return, or I will kill thee. And she screamed
out in his face. So he went out from before her, and she returned
to the dome and going down into the tomb, said, O my lord, come
forth to me, that I may see thy goodly form! The King replied in
a weak voice, What hast thou done? Thou hast rid me of the
branch, but not of the root. O my beloved, O my little black,
said she, what is the root? Out on thee, O accursed one!
answered he. Every night, at the middle hour, the people of the
city, whom thou by thine enchantments didst change into fish,
lift up their heads from the water and cry to God for help and
curse thee and me; and this is what hinders my recovery: so do
thou go quickly and set them free, and after return and take me
by the hand and raise me up; for indeed health returns to me.
When she heard this speech of the King, whom she supposed to be
the slave, she rejoiced and said, O my lord, on my head and eyes
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be it, in the name of God! Then she went out, full of joy, and
ran to the lake and taking a little of the water in her hand,
spoke over it words that might not be understood, whereupon there
was a great stir among the fish; and they raised their heads to
the surface and stood upright and became men as before. Thus was
the spell dissolved from the people of the city and the lake
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