Читать книгу One Thousand and One Nights (Complete Annotated Edition) - Richard Francis Burton - Страница 89

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She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that, after the Ambassadors and retinue from the Constantinopolitan King had kissed the ground before Omar and had delivered their embassage, they brought out the presents, which were fifty damsels of the choicest from Graecia-land, and fifty Mamelukes in tunics of brocade, belted with girdles of gold and silver, each wearing in his ears hoops of gold with pendants of fine pearls costing a thousand ducats every one. The girls were adorned in like fashion and were clad in stuffs worth a treasury of money. When the King saw them, he rejoiced in them and accepted them; then he bade the Ambassadors be honourably entreated and, summoning his Wazirs, took counsel with them of what he should do. Herewith rose up among them a Wazir, an ancient man, Dandan855 hight, who kissed the ground before Omar and said, “O King, there is nothing better to do in this matter than equip an army valiant and victorious, and set over it thy son Sharrkan with us as his lieutenants; and this rede commendeth itself to me on two counts; first, because the King of Roum hath invoked thine assistance and hath sent thee gifts which thou hast accepted; and, secondly, because while no enemy dareth attack our country, thine army may go forth safely and, should it succour the King of Graecia-land and defeat his foe, the glory will be thine. Moreover, the news of it will be noised abroad in all cities and countries and especially, when the tidings shall reach the Islands of the Ocean and the Kings of Mauritania shall hear it, they will send thee offerings of rarities and pay thee tribute of money.” The King pleased by the Wazir’s words and approving his rede, gave him a dress of honour and said to him, “Of the like of thee should Kings ask counsel, and it seemeth fit that thou shouldst conduct the van of our army and our son Sharrkan command the main battle.” Then he sent for his son who came and kissed ground before him and sat down; and he expounded to him the matter, telling him what the Ambassadors and the Wazir Dandan had said, and he charged him to take arms and equip himself for the campaign, enjoining him not to gainsay Dandan in aught he should do. Moreover, he ordered him to pick out of his army ten thousand horsemen, armed cap-à-pie and inured to onset and stress of war. Accordingly, Sharrkan arose on the instant, and chose out a myriad of horsemen, after which he entered his palace and mustered his host and distributed largesse to them, saying, “Ye have delay of three days.” They kissed the earth before him in obedience to his commands and began at once to lay in munitions, and provide provisions for the occasion; whilst Sharrkan repaired to the armouries and took therefrom whatsoever he required of arms and armour, and thence to the stable where he chose horses of choice blood and others. When the appointed three days were ended, the army drew out to the suburbs of Baghdad city;856 and King Omar came forth to take leave of his son who kissed the ground before him and received from the King seven parcels of money.857 Then he turned to Danden and commended to his care the army of his son; and the Wazir kissed the ground before him and answered, “I hear and I obey;” and lastly he charged Sharrkan that he should consult the Wazir on all occasions, which he promised to do. After this, the King returned to his city and Sharrkan ordered the officers to muster their troops in battle array. So they mustered them and their number was ten thousand horsemen, besides footmen and camp followers. Then they loaded their baggage on their beasts and the war drums beat and the trumpets blared and the bannerols and standards were unfurled, whilst Sharrkan mounted horse, with the Wazir Dandan by his side, and the colours fluttering over their heads. So the host fared forth and stinted not faring, with the ambassadors preceding them, till day departed and night drew nigh, when they alighted and encamped for the night. And as soon as Allah caused the morn tomorrow, they mounted and tried on, guided by the Ambassadors, for a space of twenty days; and by the night of the twenty first they came to a fine and spacious Wady well grown with trees and shrubbery. Here Sharrkan ordered them to alight and commanded a three days’ halt, so they dismounted and pitched their tents, spreading their camp over the right and the left slopes of the extensive valley, whilst the Wazir Dandan and the Ambassadors of King Afridun pitched in the sole of the Wady.858 As for Sharrkan, he tarried behind them for awhile till all had dismounted and had dispersed themselves over the valley sides; he then slacked the reins of his steed, being minded to explore the Wady and to mount guard in his own person, because of his father’s charge and owing to the fact that they were on the frontier of Graecia land and in the enemy’s country. So he rode out alone after ordering his armed slaves and his body guard to camp near the Wazir Dandan, and he fared on along the side of the valley till a fourth part of the night was passed, when he felt tired and drowsiness overcame him, so that he could no longer urge horse with heel. Now he was accustomed to take rest on horseback; so when slumber overpowered him, he slept and the steed ceased not going on with him till half the night was spent and entered one of the thickets859 which was dense with growth; but Sharrkan awoke not until his horse stumbled over wooded ground. Then he started from sleep and found himself among the trees, and the moon arose and shone brightly over the two horizons, Eastern and Western. He was startled when he found himself alone in this place and said the say which ne’er yet shamed its sayer, “There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!” But as he rode on, in fear of wild beasts, behold, the moon spread her glad light over a meadow as if it were of the meads of Paradise; and he heard pleasant voices and a loud noise of talk and laughter captivating the senses of men. So King Sharrkan alighted and, tying his steed to one of the trees, went over a little way till he came upon a stream and heard a woman talking in Arabic and saying, “Now by the crush of the Messiah, this is not well of you! but whose utters a word, I will throw her and truss her up with her own girdle860!” He kept walking in the direction of the sound and when he reached the further side he looked and behold, a stream was gushing and flowing, and antelopes at large were frisking and roving, and wild cattle amid the pasture moving, and birds expressed joy and gladness in their divers tongues, and that place was purfled with all manner flowers and green herbs, even as a poet described it in these couplets,

“Most beautiful is earth in budding bloom,

When lucid waters course through plain and wood:

No work but His th’ All great, th’ All glorious,

Giver of all gifts, Giver of all good!”

And as Sharrkan considered the place, he saw in it a Christian Monastery within whose enceinte a castle towered high in air catching the light of the moon.861 Through the midst of the convent passed a stream, the water flowing amongst its gardens; and upon the bank sat the woman whose voice he had heard, while before her stood ten handmaids like moons and wearing various sorts of raiment and ornaments that dazed and dazzled the beholder, high bosomed virgins, as saith of them the poet in these couplets,

“The mead is bright with what is on’t

Of merry maidens debonnair:

Double its beauty and its grace

Those trooping damsels slender-fair:

Virgins of graceful swimming gait

Ready with eye and lip to ensnare;

And like the tendril’d vine they loose

The rich profusion of their hair:

Shooting their shafts and arrows from

Beautiful eyes beyond compare;

Overpowering and transpiercing

Every froward adversaire.”

Sharrkan gazed upon the ten girls and saw in their midst a lady like the moon at fullest, with ringleted hair and forehead sheeny white, and eyes wondrous wide and black and bright, and temple locks like the scorpion’s tail; and she was perfect in essence and attributes, as the poet said of her in these couplets,

“She beamed on my sight with a wondrous glance,

And her straight slender stature enshamed the lance:

She burst on my sight with cheeks rosy red,

Where all manner of beauties have habitance:

And the locks on her forehead were lowering as night

Whence issues a dawn tide of happiest chance.”

Then Sharrkan heard her say to the handmaids, “Come ye on, that I may wrestle with you and gravel you, ere the moon set and the dawn break!” So each came up to her in turn and she grounded them forthright, and pinioned them with their girdles, and ceased not wrestling and pitching them until she had overthrown one and all. Then there turned to her an old woman who was before her, and the beldam said as in wrath, “O strumpet, cost thou glory in grounding these girls? Behold I am an old woman, yet have I thrown them forty times! So what hast thou to boast of? But if thou have the strength to wrestle with me, stand up that I may grip thee and set thy head between thy heels!” The young lady smiled at her words, but she was filled with inward wrath, and she jumped up and asked, “O my lady Zat al-Dawahi,862 by the truth of the Messiah, wilt thou wrestle with me in very deed, or dost thou jest with me?”; and she answered, “Yea,”— And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.