Speak Bird Speak Again (31 page)

Once
more the sultan came back to the ghoul's daughter after having
deserted her. This time, however, he hid himself to learn if she was
actually mute or if she could speak as his wives who had died had
claimed. Hiding himself, he found her bored with her situation.

"I'm
thirsty," she said. "Come give me some water!" The
pitcher and the water jug started arguing over which of them was to
bring the water for her. "If only," she sighed, "if
only your master were to say to me, 'O Lady Tatar - her father the
sun, and the moon her mother!' he would relieve us all."

As
soon as he heard this, the sultan called out, "O Lady Tatar -
her father the sun, and the moon her mother!"

"Yes,"
she replied, "and two yesses."

They
lived happily, and there we leave them and come back here.

21.

There
was in the old days a king, Ta'ir by name, who had no children except
an only son whose name was Ala'iddin. When he became of marriageable
age, his parents urged him once, twice, and three times to let them
find him a wife, but he always refused. One snowy day he took his
servant and went hunting. A doe sprang in front of them, and he aimed
and shot her. The servant slaughtered her, and as her blood flowed to
the ground, he said, "O master! May you find a bride who's like
this blood on the snow."

Now,
Ala'iddin had seven cousins, and his parents had been wanting to
marry him to one of them. But when he came home from the hunt, he
said to his mother, "Mother, take away the bed of happiness and
bring in the bed of sorrow. Your son Ala'iddin is sick, and there's
no medicine or cure for him."

"O
my son, my darling!" exclaimed the mother. "If your kingdom
lacks something, we'll gladly provide it. And if your army's too
small, we'll give you more soldiers."

"Impossible!"
he replied. "If you fulfill my request, I'm well; and if not,
I'm going to stay sick."

"All
right, son. What is your request?"

"You
must look for a bride for me whose face is like blood on the snow."

The
city they lived in was the biggest in the whole kingdom. The mother
went searching in the city, hoping to find a girl who fit the
description, but she could find none. Finally she spied a hut on the
side of Mount Mqallis, you might say. "I still have to look in
that hut over there," she thought to herself, "and, by
Allah, I'm going to climb up to it." Mounted on a horse, she
went up the mountain with her servants. When the owners of the hut
saw them coming, they said, "This must be the king's wife. Let's
go out and receive her."

"No
one in the world will please my son like this one," thought the
king's wife when she saw their daughter. Rushing home, she said to
him, "Son, what a bride I've found for you! In all my life I've
never seen anyone like her."

"Good!"
he said.

So,
they went asking for the girl's hand from her family.

"We
are honored," they responded. "Is it possible we should
find anyone better than you?" They accepted readily.

Ala'iddin's
family then went and made all the formal arrangements. They asked for
the girl's hand, signed the marriage contract, and set out to bring
the bride home, but her father put a condition on them. "My
daughter," said he, "will not leave this house except
riding on a dapple gray mule and escorted by a regiment of Turkish
soldiers marching to the sultan's royal band." His wish was
granted, and the bride was brought to her new home.

Now
the seven cousins stationed themselves by a doorway in the path of
the wedding procession, where they knew the bridegroom would be
passing.

"May
Allah forgive our uncle's wife for having done such a thing to our
cousin!" exclaimed the first one. "If only his wife weren't
bald!" Another one jumped in with, "If only she weren't
insane!" And another with, "If only she weren't blind in
one eye!" "If only she weren't so rude!" said a
fourth, and so on.

Hearing
this, Ala'iddin thought, "Alas! Because I've given her so much
trouble, my mother has found me a girl with all these deformities."
Turning right around, he ran away. He did not go home.

In the
same city the family had an orchard in which there was a palace,
where he went and stayed by himself. They waited for him. Today he'll
come. Tomorrow the bridegroom will arrive. A week went by, then a
month, then forty days. When forty days had gone by and the bride had
still not seen her husband, she went to her mother-in-law.

"Do
you really have a son, or don't you?" she asked.

"My
dearest," answered the mother-in-law, "Ala'iddin's my son.
There's no one like my son. He's like this and like that."

"I
believe you. Where is he?"

"Let
me tell you, my daughter. Your husband has seven cousins. Such and
such is their story, and we don't know how to bring him back, to
convince him to come back home."

"In
that case," said the bride, "ask my uncle if he would
fulfill my request, and I'll bring him back." The mother went
and spoke with her husband, and he said, "Whatever she asks for,
I'll have it made for her, so long as she brings him back."

"O
uncle," said the bride, "I want you to have a tunnel dug
for me, from my palace here to the one where he's keeping himself."

The
king had a tunnel made right up to the steps of the palace where his
son was. The bride then went into her husband's orchard, wandering
around and laying waste to everything, ripping up plants here and
breaking them there. She then came to a fountain. How beautiful was
the scenery there! [Soon] the shrubbery around there was quite a
sight. Turning her back, she went down into the tunnel and headed for
home.

When
the bridegroom came by later, what did he find but that the orchard,
the fountain, and the beautiful scenery were all in ruin, broken and
torn up?

Calling
his gardener over, he said, "Come here and tell me who's been
doing this to the orchard?"

"Please,
master!" begged the gardener. "A houri came, and I didn't
know whether she was an earthling or a creature from the sky. In all
my life I've never seen anyone like her. Her beauty could not be
described by comparing her with anything - not the sun or the moon.
She comes, my lord, and says to me, 'Gardener! Soqak boqak! Your head
is down and your feet are up!' As soon as she says that, I lose all
sense of myself, or even where I am, until she's ready to leave
again, when she says, 'Gardener! Soqak boqak! Your feet are down and
your head is up!' I have no way of knowing from where she comes or
how she goes."

"About
what time does she usually come?" asked the young man, and the
gardener said she came at such and such time. "Fine!" said
the king's son, deciding to keep a watch out for her. He waited and
waited, until he caught her.

"Come
here!" he said when he had caught her. "I'm tired. Let's go
sit by the fountain and relax. Who are you?"

"I'm
from the country of 'The Spoons and Ladles Are Where?'" she
answered. "I'm the daughter of the king of that country."

"Very
well, O king's daughter!" he said. "Let's sit and enjoy
ourselves here by the fountain.

Now
there was a beautiful gourd vine planted all around tile fountain.
"What's this?" she asked, and he replied it was a gourd
planted for decoration. She recited:

"O
Turkish gourd!

Around
the fountain trailing

West
of you,

I saw
my darling

Sitting
to take his ease

His
hair he has given

As a
net to catch the breeze

Let
him moan and weep forever

Who
took from my sight my lover!"

But he
did not understand her.

In a
while he led her to a violet. "What's this, O son of the king?"
she asked.

"It's
a violet," he answered.

She
recited:

"You
can hear the violet sing:

'Of
all flowers, I am king.

With
my sword in hand,

I
conquered the land.

Though
for a month I'm here,

And
away the rest of the year,

Yet my
essence in a vial's

A cure
for all life's trials.'"

But he
did not understand her intention.

"Come,"
he said, "let's sit here and relax. Take this cigarette and
smoke it." Lighting a cigarette, he offered it to her, and she
said:

"What
is the tobacco's fault

That
in reeds you should roll it

And
with fire burn it

To
force out the smoke?

Let
him be sad forever,

Who
took from my sight my lover!"

Yet he
did not understand her.

They
walked a little further and came upon a mulberry tree. "What's
this, O son of the king?" she asked, and he said it was a
mulberry. She called out:

"O
you mulberries!

O
mulberries!

Dangling
from the boughs,

Spreading
by the leaves!

May
his sin haunt him forever,

Who
took from my sight my lover!"

And he
still did not see her meaning.

"Let's
go up to my palace," he suggested. "I want to show you my
palace."

"I
can't walk," she said. "My legs hurt."

"Impossible!"
he said. "You'll not walk, you'll ride on my shoulders."

Carrying
her on his shoulders, he was taking her up to his palace when she
saw, O so many roses and flowers creeping along the walls of the
palace. "What are these, O son of the king?" she asked, and
he said they were roses and flowers. She then said to him:

"O
flowers climbing up our walls!

If
true what I fear,

That
you who are here

To
your seven cousins

Have
given ear,

How
helpless you are,

And to
me, how far!"

But he
did not understand.

As he
was taking her up, she rubbed her foot against a thorn on a rose
bush. Blood flowed from the scratch, and she cried out, "Ouch!
You wounded my foot!"

"Would
that my hand and foot were both broken," he answered, "rather
than your foot scratched!" Pulling out the royal handkerchief,
he bandaged her foot with it.

"If
my father were to go asking for your hand from your father," he
said, "would he give you to me?"

"Yes,"
she answered.

When
he had brought her up to the palace, he said, "For the sake of
Allah, let me sleep a while on your knee."

She
let him put his head in her lap, and he fell asleep. Stealing away by
the bottom of the stairs, she went straight home.

"Uncle's
wife!" she said, "Tomorrow, he'll be back."

"O,
my daughter!" said the other, "May Allah hear you and let
my son come back!"

Now,
the household of the king had been wearing black in mourning. "Take
off these black things," said the bride to her mother-in-law,
"and put on beautiful clothes! Decorate the house! It's certain.
He's coming home tomorrow." She then went up to the king.

"Uncle,"
she said, "send out a party to receive Ala'iddin. He's coming
back home."

"How
can I send anybody out?" asked the king. "What if he should
refuse?"

"He
won't refuse," she answered. "He's going to come."

The
king sent members of his court, and they went to bring Ala'iddin
back. As for him, he came straight with them. On their way up the
stairs, the king's son of course went ahead of the others. Meanwhile,
his bride had called a servant over, given her a plate, and said, "As
soon as the king's son comes up, throw this plate in front of him."
The servant stood behind the door and threw down the plate as soon as
he came up. He cried out:

"Pox
upon her

Who
hurled to the floor

The
plate that came crashing!"

His
bride answered him:

"And
pox upon him