1001 Arabian Nights (Season 1 : Episode 11 - Tale Of The Fisherman And Jinni Continued)

1001 Arabian Nights (Season 1 : Episode 11 - Tale Of The Fisherman And Jinni Continued)

 

I could not keep love down:

He rose and pinned my sleepy eyes awake,

He crept into my voice and made it break,

My heart, and made it ache.

I could not keep love down:

He rose and lighted fires within my brain,

And all the waters of the world are vain

To put them out again.

Moving towards the sound of this low plaining, the King found a

door covered by a curtain. Lifting the curtain, he saw a young man

lying upon his elbow on a great bed in a mighty hall. He was fair

and supple, dowered with the very voice of music; his brow was like

a flower, and his cheeks like the flowers of roses. Also, on one of

these cheeks there lay a mole like a fragment of black amber. The

poet has said:

Sweet and slim is the boy

With hair of shadows paling the night

And a brow of light

Making the stars seem grey.

My eyes have turned his way

And found a joy

Of which I dare not speak

In a nut-brown beauty spot

Which he has got

Below his dark eye on his rose-leaf cheek.

The King rejoiced at the sight of the young man and said to him:

‘Peace be with you!’ But the youth, who wore a robe of

goldenembroidered silk, did not move from his position on the bed

and it was with great sorrow both of voice and feature that he greeted

the King, saying: ‘Excuse me, my lord, for not rising.’ Thereupon the

King said: ‘Tell me, O fair young man, the story of the lake and the

coloured fishes, and also the reason of this palace and of your solitude

and your tears.’ At these words the youth wept even more sorely and

answered: ‘What is there in the evil fate that has come upon me that

I should not weep?’ So saying, he moved his thin hand towards the

skirts of his garment and lifted them away from his body. Then the

King saw that the lower half of this youth was all of marble, while the

upper half of his body, from his navel to the hair upon his head,

remained that of a man. As he stood there astonished, the young man

said to him: ‘You must know, my lord, that the tale of the fishes is

indeed a strange tale. Were it written with a bodkin on the inner

corner of an eye, yet would it be a lesson for a man of mind.’

And the youth told this story:

 

Thanks for reading, Episode 12 Coming soon.