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belly like brocade and navel holding an ounce of benzoin
ointment, even as says of her the poet:
Look at her, with her slender shape and radiant beauty! this Is
she who is at once the sun and moon of palaces!
Thine eyes shall ne er see grace combine so featly black and
white As in her visage and the locks that o er her forehead
kiss.
She in whose cheeks the red flag waves, her beauty testifies Unto
her name, if that to paint her sweet seductions miss.
With swimming gait she walks: I laugh for wonder at her hips, But
weep to see her waist, that all too slight to bear them is.
When the porter saw her, his mind and heart were taken by storm,
so that he well-nigh let fall the basket and exclaimed, Never in
all my life saw I a more blessed day than this! Then said the
portress to the cateress, O my Sister, why tarriest thou? Come
in from the gate and ease this poor man of his burden. So the
cateress entered, followed by the portress and the porter, and
went on before them to a spacious saloon, elegantly built and
handsomely decorated with all manner of colours and carvings and
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geometrical figures, with balconies and galleries and cupboards
and benches and closets with curtains drawn before them. In the
midst was a great basin of water, from which rose a fountain, and
at the upper end stood a couch of juniper wood, inlaid with
precious stones and surmounted by a canopy of red satin, looped
up with pearls as big as hazel-nuts or bigger. Thereon sat a lady
of radiant countenance and gentle and demure aspect, moonlike in
face, with eyes of Babylonian witchcraft and arched eyebrows,
sugared lips like cornelian and a shape like the letter I. The
radiance of her countenance would have shamed the rising sun, and
she resembled one of the chief stars of heaven or a pavilion of
gold or a high-born Arabian bride on the night of her unveiling,
even as says of her the poet:
Her teeth, when she smiles, like pearls in a cluster show, Or
shredded camomile-petals or flakes of snow:
Her ringlets seem, as it were, the fallen night, And her beauty
shames the dawn and its ruddy glow.
Then she rose and coming with a stately gait to meet her sisters
in the middle of the saloon, said to them, Why stand ye still?
Relieve this poor porter of his burden. So the cateress came and
stood before and the portress behind him and with the help of the
third damsel, lifted the basket from his head and emptying it,
laid everything in its place. Then they gave him two dinars,
saying, Go, O porter! But he stood, looking at the ladies and
admiring, their beauty and pleasant manners, never had he seen
goodlier, and wondering greatly at the profusion of wine and meat
and fruits and flowers and so forth that they had provided and to
see no man with them, and made no movement to go. So the eldest
lady said to him, What ails thee that thou dost not go away?
Belike, thou grudgest at thy pay? And she turned to the cateress
and said to her, Give him another dinar. No, by Allah, O
lady! answered the porter. I do not indeed grudge at my pay,
for my right hire is scarce two dirhems; but of a truth my heart
and soul are taken up with you and how it is that ye are alone
and have no man with you and no one to divert you, although ye
know that women s sport is little worth without men, nor is an
entertainment complete without four at the table, and ye have no
fourth. What says the poet?
Dost thou not see that for pleasure four several things combine,
Instruments four, harp, hautboy and gittern and psaltery?
And unto these, four perfumes answer and correspond, Violets,
roses and myrtle and blood-red anemone.
Nor is our pleasure perfect, unless four things have we, Money
and wine and gardens and mistress fair and free.
And ye are three and need a fourth, who should be a man, witty,
sensible and discreet, one who can keep counsel. When they heard
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what he said, it amused them and they laughed at him and replied,
What have we to do with that, we who are girls and fear to
entrust our secrets to those who will not keep them? For we have
read, in such and such a history, what says Ibn eth Thumam:
Tell not thy secrets: keep them with all thy might. A secret
revealed is a secret lost outright.
If thine own bosom cannot thy secrets hold, Why expect more
reserve from another wight?
Or, as well says Abou Nuwas on the same subject:
The fool, that to men doth his secrets avow, Deserves to be
marked with a brand on the brow.
By your lives, rejoined the porter, I am a man of sense and
discretion, well read in books and chronicles. I make known what
is fair and conceal what is foul, and as says the poet:
None keeps a secret but the man who s trusty and discreet. A
secret s ever safely placed with honest folk and leal;
And secrets trusted unto me are in a locked-up house Whose keys
are lost and on whose door is set the Cadi s seal.
When the girls heard this, the eldest one said to him, Thou
knowest that we have laid out much money in preparing this
entertainment: hast thou aught to offer us in return? For we will
not let thee sit with us and be our boon companion and gaze on
our bright fair faces, except thou pay down thy share of the
cost. Dost thou not know the saying:
Love without money
Is not worth a penny?
If thou have aught, my friend, added the portress, then art
thou something: but if thou have nothing, be off without
anything. Here the cateress interposed, saying, O sisters, let
him be: for by Allah, he has not failed us to-day: another had
not been so patient with us. I will pay his share for him.
Whereupon the porter, overjoyed, kissed the earth and thanked
her, saying, By Allah, it was thou didst handsel me this day!
Here are the two dinars I had of you: take them and admit me to
your company, not as a guest, but as a servant. Sit down,
answered they; thou art welcome. But the eldest lady said,
By Allah, we will not admit thee to our society but on one
condition; and it is that thou enquire not of what does not
concern thee; and if thou meddle, thou shalt be beaten. Said the
porter, I agree to this, O my lady, on my head and eyes!
Henceforth I am dumb. Then arose the cateress and girding her
middle, laid the table by the fountain and set out the cups and
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flagons, with flowers and sweet herbs and all the requisites for
drinking. Moreover, she strained the wine and set it on; and they
sat down, she and her sisters, with the porter, who fancied
himself in a dream. The cateress took the flagon of wine and
filled a cup and drank it off. Then she filled again and gave it
to one of her sisters, who drank and filled another cup and gave
it to her other sister: then she filled a fourth time and gave it
to the porter, saying:
Drink and fare well and health attend thee still. This drink
indeed s a cure for every ill.
He took the cup in his hand and bowed and returned thanks,
reciting the following verses:
Quaff not the cup except with one who is of trusty stuff, One who
is true of thought and deed and eke of good descent.
Wine s like the wind, that, if it breathe on perfume, smells as
sweet, But, if o er carrion it pass, imbibes its evil scent.
And again:
Drink not of wine except at the hands of a maiden fair, Who, like
unto thee and it, is joyous and debonair.
Then he kissed their hands and drank and was merry with wine and
swayed from side to side and recited the following verses:
Hither, by Allah, I conjure thee! Goblets that full of the grape [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] - zanotowane.pl
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