The Arabian Nights II (35 page)

Then they flew down and alighted in the hall inside the tower, and
Maimuna, making Dahnash stand beside the bed, drew the sheet from Qamar al-Zaman's face, which shone and beamed and glowed. Maimuna looked at him and, turning to Dahnash immediately, said, “Look at him, devil, and don't be the most disgusting madman. I am a female, and I am fascinated by him.” Dahnash looked at him and stood contemplating a while. Then he shook his head and said to her, “By God, my lady, you are excused, but the female is different from the male. By God, your beloved bears the closest resemblance to mine in beauty, elegance, and grace, as if they were made from the same mold.” When Maimuna heard these words, the light turned to darkness before her eyes, and she struck him on the head with her wing, with a blow so hard that it almost killed him. She said, “I swear by the light of his face that you shall go at once, you devil, and carry your beloved and bring her quickly here, so that we may lay them together, look at them, as they lie asleep side by side, and see who is the more beautiful of the two. If you don't follow my command immediately, you devil, I will shower you with my lethal sparks and burn you and scatter you in pieces in the desert, making you an example to every passerby.” Dahnash replied, “My lady, you will be obeyed, even though I know that my beloved is more beautiful and charming than yours.”

Then he flew away immediately, and Maimuna flew with him to guard him. They were absent for an hour; then they returned, carrying the girl, who was wearing a delicate Venetian shirt laced with gold and embellished with the most wonderful embroidery, with the following verses inscribed on the cuffs,

Three causes prevent her from visiting,

Fear of the spy and envier who harms,

And her own beauties: her ambergris scent,

Her shining brow, and the sound of her charms.

Grant she doffs her jewels and hides her brow

With her sleeves, how can she hide that scent, how?

They descended with the girl and laid her beside the young man, and when they uncovered their faces, they looked very much alike, as if they were twins or only brother and sister. They were a temptation to the pious, as the poet eloquently said,

O heart, be not to one alone confined

For you will be confused, meek, and doting.

Rather love all the fair, and you will find,

If one disdains, another is forthcoming.

Maimuna and Dahnash looked at them for a while; then Dahnash said, “My beloved is more beautiful,” and Maimuna replied, “Mine is more beautiful. Damn you, Dahnash, are you blind? Don't you see
his beauty, elegance, and grace? Listen to what I will say of my beloved, and if you are a true lover, match me in her praise.” Then she kissed Qamar al-Zaman several times and recited the following poem,

What respite from rebuke for loving you,

And for a fine shape what consolation?

Your dark eyes cast their charm and captivate

And fill the burning heart with chaste elation,

With Turkish looks, which even more than steel,

When sharply honed, my soul they pierce and tear.

I bear the heavy burden of your love,

When I'm too weak even a shirt to wear.

My nature has become my love for you,

And that for others is only a show.

My wasting body is thin like your waist.

Were my heart like yours, I would not say no.

Woe to me from a moon with every grace,

Whose fabled beauties all men fascinate.

Some rail, “Who is he for whose love you pine?”

I say, “Look, and his charms enumerate.”

Learn, o hard heart of his, from his soft shape,

So that he may perhaps relent and bend.

Your eyes, my prince of beauty, conquer me,

And your eyebrows my heart unfairly rend.

He lies who says, “Joseph all beauty owns,”

For Joseph is only of you a part.

I terrify the demons, when we meet,

But when I meet you, with fear beats my heart.

Daunted, I try to keep away from you,

But my love is greater than all my tries.

Your hair is black, your brow is shining bright,

Your shape is slender, brilliant are your eyes.

When Dahnash heard Maimuna's verses, he was moved with great admiration and delight and said, “You have sung with tender verses the praises of your beloved, with whom you are obsessed; now it is my turn to praise my beloved to the best of my ability.” Then he approached his beloved Budur and kissed her between the eyes and, looking at her and at Maimuna, recited the following verses,

I haunt the valley where we used to meet,

But I am slain and far is her abode.

I am drunk with love, and the teardrops dance,

As the cameleer sings upon the road.

I search for love and happiness and know

That happiness is only in Budur.

Say, of which of her charms should I complain the most?

Let me enumerate; so listen and be sure:

Her sword-like glances, her lance-like figure,

Or mail-like woven sidelocks of her hair?

She said, as I queried every bedouin

And townsman, searching for her everywhere,

“My dwelling is your heart; look for me there.”

I said, “Alas for me, for my heart is not here.”

When he finished reciting his verses, Maimuna said, “Bravo, Dahnash! But which of the two is the more beautiful?” Dahnash replied, “My beloved Budur is more beautiful than yours.”

They continued to contradict each other until Maimuna shouted at him and was about to strike him. But he humbled himself and spoke meekly, saying, “You are not one to evade the truth. Let us forget our claims, for each of us insists that his beloved is more beautiful. Rather, let us find someone who will judge fairly between us, and we will abide by his judgment.” Maimuna replied, “I agree.” Then she struck the floor with her foot, and there arose from it a mangy, one-eyed demon. His eye was slit upright on his face, his head bore seven horns and four locks of hair hanging to the ground, his hands were like pitchforks, his claws like those of a lion, his legs like those of an elephant, and his hoofs like those of an ass. When he came out and saw Maimuna, he kissed the ground before her and, clasping his hands behind his back, said to her, “What do you wish, o mistress, o daughter of the king?” She said to him, “Qashqash, I want you to judge between me and this devil Dahnash.” Then she told him the story from beginning to end, and when she finished, the demon Qashqash looked at the young man and the girl and saw them lying asleep, with the arm of each under the neck of the other, and looking alike in beauty and grace. He marveled at their beauty and charm, and after gazing at them for a long time, he turned to Maimuna and Dahnash and recited the following verses,

Cleave to the one you love and ignore calumny,

For those who envy never favor love.

Two lovers in one bed, no fairer sight

Has Mercy's Lord created from above.

Bosom to bosom in each other's arm,

They lie in bliss, clad in their own delight,

For when two hearts unite in love's embrace,

The world and all its chatter seem so trite.

Therefore, if ever you your true love find,

O rare occasion, you should never part,

And you who chide the lovers for their love,

Why not, instead, reform the wicked heart?

O Lord of Mercy, join us two, I pray,

Before we die, if only for one day.

Then Qashqash turned to Maimuna and Dahnash and said to them, “By God, none of them is more or less beautiful than the other. They bear the strongest resemblance to each other in beauty and charm and elegance and perfection, even though one is male and the other female. But I have another idea. Let us awaken each of them in turn, without the other's knowledge, and whichever shows more love for the other will be judged to be the lesser in beauty and grace.” Maimuna said, “This is an excellent idea. I accept,” and Dahnash said, “I too accept.”

Then Dahnash turned himself into a flea and bit Qamar al-Zaman on a soft spot on the neck. Qamar al-Zaman reached with his hand and scratched the place of the smarting bite and, moving sideways, felt something lying beside him, with a breath sweeter than musk and a body softer than butter. He was startled and amazed and, sitting up, looked at the person lying beside him and found that it was a girl who looked like a shining pearl or an opulent dome, with a slender body, five feet tall, a high bosom, and rosy cheeks. She was like her of whom the poet said,

She shines like a moon and bends like a willow bough

And breathes like ambergris and like a gazelle gazes.

Grief seems to love my heart, and when she parts,

It finds home in my heart's lonely mazes.

When Qamar al-Zaman looked at Princess Budur, the daughter of King Ghaiur, and saw her beauty and grace as she slept beside him, wearing a Venetian shirt, without pants, a kerchief embroidered with gold and jewels, and a necklace inlaid with gems, beyond the means of any king, his reason was confounded, and the heat of instinct began to stir within him, as God aroused in him the desire to make love to her. Saying to himself, “What God wills shall be, and what he wills not, shall not,” he turned her over and untied the collar of her shirt, revealing her belly and her breasts. When he saw them, his love and desire redoubled, and he shook her and moved her, in order to awaken her, saying, “Sweetheart, wake up and look on me; I am Qamar al-Zaman,” but she did not wake up, nor even move her head, for Dahnash had made her sleep heavy. He thought for a while and said to himself, “If my guess is right, this is the girl whom my father wishes me to marry, the one I have been refusing for three years. In the morning, God willing,
I will go to my father and ask him to marry me to her, and I will not let half the day pass before I possess her and enjoy her beauty and charm.” Then he bent over Budur to kiss her, and Maimuna shook with embarrassment, while Dahnash jumped with joy. But when he was about to kiss her on the mouth, he felt embarrassed before God and turned his head away, saying to himself, “I should be patient, for perhaps my father, when he was angry with me and imprisoned me here, brought me this bride in order to test me, and ordered her to lie beside me and not to appear awake when I attempted to awaken her, charging her to let him know whatever I did to her. Perhaps he is hiding somewhere, where he can see, without being seen, everything I do to this girl, and in the morning he will chide me saying, ‘How could you say that you had no wish to marry, while you kissed and embraced this girl?' I had better refrain, lest I be found out by my father. I will not look at her or touch her at this time, but I will take from her something that will be a souvenir of her and a token between us.” Then Qamar al-Zaman lifted her hand and took from her little finger a ring worth a great deal of money, for it was set with a very precious gem, inscribed all around with the following verses,

Do not think that I have your vows forgot,

No matter how long is your cruel disdain.

Have pity master, and grant me my wish,

That I may kiss your cheeks and lips again.

Although you go beyond the bounds of love,

By God, I will always with you remain.

He placed the ring on his own little finger, turned his back to her, and went to sleep.

When Maimuna saw this, she was glad and said to Dahnash and Qashqash, “Have you seen my beloved Qamar al-Zaman and how he has abstained from this girl? This is the result of his perfect character, for see how he looked at this girl and saw her beauty and charm, yet he did not embrace her nor caress her with his hand, but instead turned his back to her and went to sleep.” They replied, “We have witnessed his perfect behavior.”

Then Maimuna turned herself into a flea and, entering the clothes of Budur, Dahnash's beloved, crept up her leg, then her thigh, and continued until she reached a spot four inches below the navel and bit her there. Budur opened her eyes and, sitting up, saw a young man lying beside her and breathing heavily in his sleep, with cheeks like anemones, eyes that put to shame the maids of paradise, and a mouth like the seal of Solomon, whose sweet water is more healing than treacle. He was like him of whom the poet said,

From Zainab and Nawar I'm drawn away

By a rose on the myrtle of a cheek.

Being in love with a tunic-clad fawn,

I no longer the bangles-wearing seek,

In private and in public he's my friend,

Unlike a woman who is seen by none.

You who blame my leaving Hind or Zainab,

When my excuse is as clear as the sun,

Do you wish me to become a slave's thrall,

A cloistered slave, one kept behind a wall?

As soon as Princess Budur saw Qamar al-Zaman, she fell passionately in love with him and said to herself, “Shame on me! This young man is a stranger whom I do not know; how come he is lying beside me in the same bed?” Then she looked at him closely and, noting his beauty and grace and coquettish charm, said to herself, “By God, this young man is as beautiful as the moon, and my heart is torn with love and longing for his beauty and grace. Shame on me! Had I known that it was he who had asked for my hand from my father, I would not have refused him but would have married him and enjoyed his beauty.” Then she gazed in his face and said, “O my lord, my sweetheart, and light of my eyes, awake from your sleep and enjoy my beauty and charm,” and she shook him with her hand. But the she-demon Maimuna pressed on his head with her wings and cast a heavy sleep on him, so that he might not awake. Princess Budur kept shaking him and said, “By my life, listen to me! Wake up from your sleep and look at the narcissus and the green, enjoy my belly and navel, and dally with me and play with me from now till morning. O my lord, sit up and lean against the pillow and do not sleep.” But Qamar al-Zaman did not reply or respond but continued to breathe heavily in his sleep. She added, “Why are you so conceited with your beauty and grace and coquettish charm? Just as you are beautiful, I too am beautiful. Why do you behave this way? Have they taught you to ward me off, or has the wretched old man, my father, forbidden you to speak to me tonight?” Qamar al-Zaman's eyes flickered open for a moment, and her love intensified, as God inflamed her heart. One look at him was followed by a thousand sighs, her heart fluttered, her being yearned, her body trembled, and she said to him, “O my lord, my beloved, sweetheart, speak to me, answer me, and tell me your name, for you have made me lose my mind,” while Qamar al-Zaman continued to sleep soundly, without uttering a word. She sighed and said, “Why are you so conceited?” Then she shook him and, turning his hand over, saw her ring on his little finger. She gasped and said to him flirtatiously, “Ah, ah, by God, I love you, and you love me, but you
turn away from me out of coquetry; you came to me while I was asleep, and I do not know what you did to me, but I will not take off my ring from your finger.” Then she opened his shirt and, bending over him, kissed him on the neck and searched for something to take from him, but found nothing. And when she saw that he was without pants, she placed her hand under his shirt and felt his legs, and as his skin was very smooth, her hand slipped and touched his penis, and her heart ached and pounded with desire, for the lust of women is greater than the lust of men, and she felt embarrassed. Then she took his ring from his finger and put it on her own and kissed his mouth and hands and every spot on his body. Then she took him in her lap, embraced him, with one arm under his neck and the other under his armpit, and fell asleep.