"Payne Volume VIII" - читать интересную книгу автора (Paynes Versions)
ааааа Forget not our loves of old time, O Mesrour, And keep thou our vows and our troth plight with care.
ааааа My faith for thy love and thy sake I have changed And my secret for passion I'll never declare;
ааааа So, if, like to the noble, our love thou've preserved, Be no laggard, but hasten to us to repair.
Then she folded the letter and gave it to her maid Huboub, saying, 'Keep it in thy pocket, till we send it to Mesrour.'
Presently in came the Jew and seeing them joyous, said to them, 'How comes it that I find you merry? Hath a letter reached you from your friend Mesrour?' 'We have no helper against thee save God, blessed and exalted be He!' replied Zein el Mewasif. 'He will deliver us from thy tyranny, and except thou restore to us our country and home, we will complain of thee to-morrow to the Cadi and governor of this town.' Quoth he, 'Who did off the shackles from your legs? But needs must I let make each of you shackles ten pounds in weight and go round about the city with you.' 'All that thou purposest against us,' replied Huboub, 'thou shalt fall into thyself, so it please God the Most High, by token that thou hast exiled us from our homes, and to-morrow we shall stand, we and thou, before the governor of the city.'
On this wise they passed the night and the next morning the Jew went out to order fresh shackles, whereupon Zein el Mewasif rose and repaired with her women to the court-house, where she found the four Cadis and saluted them. They all returned her salutation and the Chief Cadi said to those about him, 'Verily this damsel is lovely as Ez Zehra (20) and all who see her love her and prostrate themselves to her beauty and grace.' Then he despatched four sergeants, who were sherifs, (21) to fetch the Jew after the most abject fashion: so, when he returned with the shackles and found none in the house, he was confounded; but, as he abode in perplexity, up came the officers and laying hold of him, beat him soundly and dragged him face, downward, before the Cadi. When the latter saw him, he cried out in his face and said to him, 'Out on thee, O enemy of God, is it come to such a pass with thee that thou dost thus and bringest these women far from their country and stealest their good and wouldst make them Jews? How darest thou seek to pervert Muslims?' 'O my lord,' answered the Jew, 'this woman is my wife.'
When the Cadis heard this, they all cried out, saying, 'Cast this dog on the ground and smite him on the face with your sandals and beat him soundly, for his offence is unpardonable.' So they pulled off his silken clothes and clad him in his wife's raiment of hair-cloth, after which they threw him down and plucked out his beard and belaboured him about the face with sandals. Then they set him on an ass, face to crupper, and causing him take its tail in his hand, paraded him round about the town, after which they brought him back to the Cadis, who all condemned him to have his feet and hands cut off and after be crucified. When the accursed wretch heard this, his wit forsook him and he was confounded and said, 'O my lords the Cadis, what would ye of me?' 'Say,' answered they, "'This damsel is not my wife and the money is her money, and I have transgressed against her and brought her far from her country."' So he confessed to this and the Cadis recorded his confession in legal form and taking the money from him, gave it to Zein el Mewasif, together with their voucher. Then she went away and all who saw her were confounded at her beauty and grace, whilst each of the Cadis looked for her to fall to his share. But, when she came to her lodging, she made ready all that she needed and waited till night. Then she took what was light of carriage and heavy of worth, and setting out with her maids, under cover of the darkness, fared on three days and three nights without stopping.
Meanwhile, the Cadis ordered the Jew to prison and on the morrow they looked for her coming to them, they and their assessors; but she presented herself not to any of them. Then said the Chief Cadi, 'I wish to-day to go a-pleasuring without the town on an occasion I have.' So he mounted his mule and taking his servant with him, went coasting about the streets of the town, searching high and low for Zein el Mewasif, but to no effect.
Presently he came upon the other three Cadis, going about on the same errand, each deeming himself the only one to whom she had pledged herself. He asked them what they did there and they told him their business, whereby he saw that their plight was as his plight and their quest as his quest. So they all four went round about the city, seeking her, but could light on no trace of her and returned to their houses, sick for love, and lay down on the bed of languor. Presently the Chief Cadi bethought himself of the blacksmith; so he sent for him and said to him, 'O blacksmith, knowest thou what is come of the damsel whom thou didst direct to me? By Allah, an thou discover her not to me, I will beat thee with whips.' When the smith heard this, he recited the following verses:
ааааа Her, that possesseth me in love, kind Fortune did endow With beauty all nor aught thereof to others did allow.
ааааа The eye of a gazelle she hath; her scent is ambergris; She shines, a sun, and undulates, a lake, and sways, a bough.
Then said he, 'By Allah, O my lord, since she went out from thy worshipful presence, I have not set eyes on her! Indeed, she took possession of my heart and senses and all my talk and thought is of her. I went to her house, but found her not, nor found I any who could give me news of her, and it is as if she had plunged into the abysses of the sea or been caught up into the sky.'
When the Cadi heard this, he gave a groan, that his soul was like to depart therefor, and said, 'By Allah, it would have been well, had we never seen her!' Then the smith went away, whilst the Cadi fell down on his bed and became sick of languor for her sake, and on like wise fared it with the other three Cadis and the assessors. The physicians paid them frequent visits, but found in them no ailment requiring a leach: so the chief men of the city went in to the Chief Cadi and saluting him, questioned him of his case; whereupon he sighed and discovered to them that which was in his heart, reciting the following verses:
ааааа Spare me your blame, for sickness' pains enough on me are keen, And hold excused the Cadi who doth judge the folk between.
ааааа Let him who blameth me for love excuse me and not blame, For still unblameworthy the slain of passion are, I ween.
ааааа Cadi was I and fortune fair raised me to high estate, By script and pen, and life to me was pleasant and serene,
ааааа Till from a girl's looks, who to shed my blood came, with a shaft I was transfixed, whose deadly stroke no leach might countervene.
ааааа A Muslim maid, she came to me, complaining of unright; Her mouth with teeth like strings of pearls unvalued was beseen.
ааааа Under her veil I looked and she a full moon straight displayed That through the middle dark of night breaks out in all its sheen.
ааааа A lustrous visage, sugared lips and smiling, wonder-sweet, Beauty indeed enveloped her from head to foot, my queen.
ааааа 'Midst Arabs and barbarians, by Allah, to mine eyes, To see the like of her fair face hath ne'er vouchsafed been!
ааааа Sweet, what didst promise me and saidst, 'O Cadi of the folk, Whenas I promise, I perform, and what I say I mean.'
ааааа This is my case and that wherewith I have afflicted been; So question me no more, good folk, of this my dole and teen.
Then he wept sore and gave one sob and his soul departed his body. When they saw this, they washed him and shrouded him and prayed over him and buried him, graving the following verses on his tomb:
ааааа Cadi above the folk was he and him it did rejoice The sword of justice in its sheath to keep a prisoner.
ааааа But Fate against him did decree, nor e'er before his time Saw we the lord unto his slave abase him and defer.
Then they committed him to the mercy of God and went away to the second Cadi, in company with the physician, but found in him no hurt or ailment requiring a leach. So they questioned him of his case and he told them what ailed him, whereupon they blamed him and chid him for his folly, and he answered them with these verses:
ааааа I'm cursed with her,--my like was blameless aye--and dead I'm shotten with a shaft from hand of archer sped.
ааааа A woman unto me there came, Huboub by name, Complaining of unright and Fortune's drearihead;
ааааа And with her came a girl, who showed a face that passed The full moon's light athwart the middle darkness spread.
ааааа Her beauties she displayed and her complaint preferred What while in floods there ran the tears her eyelids shed.
ааааа I hearkened to her speech and looked upon her face And sore she made me pine with smiling lips and red.
ааааа Then with my heart away she fared and left me here, The hostage of desire. Ah, whither hath she fled?
ааааа This then is all my case; have ruth upon my plight And take my servant here to Cadi in my stead.
Then he gave one sob and his soul departed his body; whereupon they buried him and commending him to the mercy of God, repaired to the third Cadi and the fourth, and there befell them the like of what befell their brethren. Moreover, they found the assessors also sick for love of her, and indeed all who saw her died of her love, or, if they died not, lived, afflicted with the agonies of passion [in vain], may God have mercy on them all!
Meanwhile Zein el Mewasif and her women fared on with all diligence till they came to a convent by the way, in which dwelt a prior called Danis and forty monks. When the prior saw her beauty, he went out to her and invited her to alight, saying, 'Rest with us ten days and after go your ways.' So she and her damsels alighted and entered the convent; and when Danis saw her beauty and grace, she debauched his faith and he was seduced by her: wherefore he fell to sending her love-messages by the monks, one after another, till he had sent all the forty; but each who saw her fell in love with her and plied her with blandishments galore and sought her favours for himself, without naming Danis, whilst she denied herself to them and rebuffed them all with harsh answers.
When Danis's patience was at an end and his passion was sore on him, he said in himself, 'Verily, the proverb says, "Nothing scratches my body but my own nail and nought runs my errands like my own feet."' So he rose and made ready rich meats, and it was the ninth day of her sojourn in the convent. Then he carried them in to her and set them before her, saying, 'In the name of God, favour us [by partaking] of the best of the food at our command.' So she put out her hand, saying, 'In the name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful!' and ate, she and her maidens. When she had made an end of eating, he said to her, 'O my lady, I wish to recite to you some verses.' 'Say on,' quoth she; and he recited the following:
ааааа Thou hast made conquest of my heart by dint of cheek and eye; In love of thee my prose and verse with one another vie.
ааааа Wilt thou forsake a lover sick with passion and desire? E'en in my dreams 'gainst love I strive, with many a tear and sigh.
ааааа With my delights, I have th' affairs of this my convent left: Leave me not prostrate, love-distraught, to languish and to die.
ааааа O lovely one, that holdest right the shedding of my blood In love, have pity on my case, give ear unto my cry.
When she heard this, she answered him with these verses:
ааааа O thou that seek'st of me delight, let not vain hope thy wit Delude; of thy soliciting I prithee hold me quit.
ааааа Let not thy spirit covet that which it may not possess: Disquietude with covetise was ever straitly knit.
Thereupon he returned to his place, pondering in himself and knowing not how he should do in her affair, and passed the night in very sorry case. But, as soon as it was dark night, Zein el Mewasif arose and said to her maids, 'Come, [let us depart hence], for we cannot avail against forty men, monks, each of whom requireth me of himself.' 'Willingly,' answered they. So they mounted their beasts and issuing forth of the convent gate, under favour of the night, rode on till they overtook a caravan, with which they mingled and found it came from the city of Aden. Presently, Zein el Mewasif heard the people of the caravan discoursing of her own case and telling how the Cadis and assessors were dead of love for her and how the townsfolk had appointed others in their stead and released her husband from prison. Whereupon she turned to her maids and said to them, 'Heard ye that?' And Huboub answered, 'If the monks were ravished with love of thee, whose belief it is that to abstain from women is to do God worship, how should it be with the Cadis, who hold that there is no monkery in Islam? But let us make our way to our own country, whilst our affair is yet undiscovered.' So they journeyed on with all diligence.
On the morrow, as soon as it was day, the monks repaired to Zein el Mewasif's lodging to salute her, but found the place empty, and their hearts sank within them. So the first monk rent his clothes and recited these verses:
ааааа Give ear, companions dear, to that I shall to you impart; For I must say farewell to you full shortly and depart.
ааааа The pangs of passion and desire within mine entrails rage And eke a slayer from the flame of love is in my heart,
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