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prince told him his name and rank and that he was the son of King
Shehriman, and related to him the whole story from beginning to
end; whereat Ghaïour marvelled and said,  Verily, your story
deserves to be recorded in books and read after you, generation
after generation. Then he summoned Cadis and witnesses
forthright and married the two lovers; after which he bade
decorate the city seven days long. So they decorated the city
and held high festival, and all the troops donned their richest
clothes, whilst the drums beat and the criers announced the glad
tidings. Then they spread the tables with all manner meats and
unveiled the princess before Kemerezzeman, and behold, each was
like unto the other in beauty and elegance and amorous grace. So
the King rejoiced in the issue of her affair and in her marriage
and praised God for that He had made her to fall in love with a
goodly youth of the sons of the kings. Then Kemerezzeman went in
to her and lay with her that night and took his will of her,
whilst she in like manner fufilled her desire of him and enjoyed
his beauty and grace; and they clipped each other till the
morning. On the morrow, the King made a banquet and spreading
the tables with the richest meats, kept open house a whole month
to all comers from the Islands of the Inner and the Outer Seas.
Now, when Kemerezzeman had thus attained his desire and had
tarried awhile with the princess Budour, he bethought him of his
father and saw him in a dream, saying,  O my son, is it thus thou
dealest with me? and reciting the following verses:
The moon o the dark by his neglect my spirit doth appal And to
the watching of his stars hath made my eyelids thrall.
But soft, my heart! It may be yet he will return to thee; And
patience, soul, beneath the pain he s smitten thee withal!
Kemerezzeman awoke in the morning, afflicted and troubled at what
he had seen, whereupon the princess questioned him and he told
her his dream. Then they both went in to King Ghaïour and
telling him what had passed, besought his leave to depart. He
gave the prince the leave he sought; but the princess said,
 O my father, I cannot endure to be parted from him. Quoth
Ghaïour,  Then go thou with him, and gave her leave to be
absent a whole year, charging her to visit him once in every year
thereafterward. So she kissed his hand and Kemerezzeman did the
like; after which he proceeded to equip them for the journey,
furnishing them with horses and dromedaries of choice and a
litter for his daughter, besides mules and camels laden with
victual and all manner of travelling gear. Moreover, he
gave them slaves and eunuchs to serve them and bestowed on
Kemerezzeman ten splendid suits of cloth of gold, embroidered
with jewels, together with a treasury[FN42] of money and ten
riding horses and as many she-camels. When the day of departure
105
arrived, the King accompanied them to the farthest limits of his
islands, where, going in to his daughter Budour in the litter, he
kissed her and strained her to his bosom, weeping and repeating
the following verses:
O thou that seekest parting, stay thy feet, For sure embraces are
a lover s right.
Softly, for fortune s nature is deceit And parting is the end of
love-delight.
Then, leaving her, he kissed her husband and commended his
daughter to his care; after which he bade him farewell and giving
the signal for departure, returned to his capital with his
troops. The prince and princess and their suite fared on without
stopping a whole month, at the end of which time they came to a
spacious champaign, abounding in pasturage, where they alighted
and pitched their tents. They ate and drank and rested, and
the princess Budour lay down to sleep. Presently, Kemerezzeman
went in to her and found her lying asleep, in a shift of
apricot-coloured silk, that showed all it should have covered,
and a coif of cloth of gold embroidered with pearls and jewels.
The breeze raised her shift and showed her breasts and navel and
a belly whiter than snow, each one of whose dimples contained an
ounce of benzoin ointment.[FN43] At this sight, his love and
passion for her redoubled, and he recited the following verses:
If, whilst within my entrails the fires of hell did stir And
flames raged high about me,  twere spoken in my ear,
 Which wilt thou have the rather, a draught of water cold Or
sight of her thou lovest? I d say,  The sight of her.
Then he put his hand to the ribbon of her trousers and drew it
and loosed it, for that his soul lusted after her, when he saw a
jewel, red as dragon s blood,[FN44] made fast to the band. He
untied and examined it and seeing two lines of writing graven
thereon, in a character not to be read, marvelled and said in
himself,  Except she set great store by this, she had not tied it
to the ribbon of her trousers nor hidden it in the most private
place about her person, that she might not be parted from it. I
wonder what she doth with it and what is the secret that is in
it. So saying, he took it and went without the tent to look at
it in the light; but as he was examining it, a bird swooped down
on him and snatching it from his hand, flew off with it and
lighted on the ground at a little distance. Fearing to lose the
talisman, he ran after the bird; but it flew on before him,
keeping just out of his reach, and drew him on from place to
place and from hill to hill, till the night came on and the air
grew dark, when it roosted on a high tree. Kemerezzeman stopped
under the tree, confounded and faint for hunger and weariness,
and giving himself up for lost, would have turned back, but knew
106
not the way, for the darkness had overtaken him. So he
exclaimed,  There is no power and no virtue but in God the Most
High, the Supreme! and lying down under the tree, slept till
the morning, when he awoke and saw the bird also awake and fly [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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