"Albeit my vitals quiver 'neath this ban; *
Before the foe myself I'll ne'er unman!
So pardon me, my vitals are a writ *
Whose superscription are my tears that ran:
Heigh ho! my cousin seemeth Houri may *
Come down to earth by reason of Rizwan:
'Scapes not the dreadful sword lunge of her look *
Who dares the glancing of those eyne to scan:
O'er Allah's wide spread world I'll roam and roam, *
And from such exile win what bread I can
Yes, o'er broad earth I'll roam and save my soul, *
All but her absence bear ing like a man
With gladsome heart I'll haunt the field of fight, *
And meet the bravest Brave in battle van!"
So Kanmakan fared forth from the palace barefoot and he walked in a short sleeved gown, wearing on his head a skull cap of felt[FN#74] seven years old and carrying a scone three days stale, and in the deep glooms of night betook himself to the portal of al-Arij of Baghdad. Here he waited for the gate being opened and when it was opened, he was the first to pass through it; and he went out at random and wandered about the wastes night and day. When the dark hours came, his mother sought him but found him not; whereupon the world waxt strait upon her for all that it was great and wide, and she took no delight in aught of weal it supplied. She looked for him a first day and a second day and a third day till ten days were past, but no news of him reached her. Then her breast became contracted and she shrieked and shrilled, saying, "O my son! O my darling! thou hast revived my regrets. Sufficed not what I endured, but thou must depart from my home? After thee I care not for food nor joy in sleep, and naught but tears and mourning are left me. O my son, from what land shall I call thee? And what town hath given thee refuge?" Then her sobs burst out, and she began repeating these couplets,
"Well learnt we, since you left, our grief and sorrow to
sustain, * While bows of severance shot their shafts in
many a railing rain:
They left me, after girthing on their selles of corduwayne *
To fight the very pangs of death while spanned they sandy
plain:
Mysterious through the nightly gloom there came the moan of
dove; * A ring dove, and replied I, 'Cease thy plaint, how
durst complain?'
If, by my life, her heart, like mine, were full of pain and
pine * She had not decks her neck with ring nor sole with
ruddy stain.[FN#75]
Fled is mine own familiar friend, bequeathing me a store *
Of parting pang and absence ache to suffer evermore."
Then she abstained from food and drink and gave herself up to excessive tear shedding and lamentation. Her grief became public property far and wide and all the people of the town and country side wept with her and cried, "Where is thine eye, O Zau al- Makan?" And they bewailed the rigours of Time, saying, "Would Heaven we knew what hath befallen Kanmakan that he fled his native town, and chased himself from the place where his father used to fill all in hungry case and do justice and grace?" And his mother redoubled her weeping and wailing till the news of Kanmakan's departure came to King Sasan.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the One Hundred and Fortieth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that came to King Sasan the tidings of the departure of Kanmakan, through the Chief Emirs who said to him, "Verily he is the son of our Sovran and the seed of King Omar bin al-Nu'uman and it hath reached us that he hath exiled himself from the land." When King Sasan heard these words, he was wroth with them and ordered one of them to be hanged by way of silencing him, whereat the fear of him fell upon the hearts of all the other Grandees and they dared not speak one word. Then he called to mind all the kindness that Zau al-Makan had done him, and how he had charged him with the care of his son; wherefore he grieved for Kanmakan and said, "Needs must I have search made for him in all countries." So he summoned Tarkash and bade him choose an hundred horse and wend with them in quest of the Prince. Accordingly he went out and was absent ten days, after which he returned and said, "I can learn no tidings of him and have hit on no trace of him, nor can any tell me aught of him." Upon this King Sasan repented him of that which he had done by the Prince; whilst his mother abode in unrest continual nor would patience come at her call: and thus passed over her twenty days in heaviness all. This is how it fared with these; but as regards Kanmakan, when he left Baghdad, he went forth perplexed about his case and knowing not whither he should go: so he fared on alone through the desert for three days and saw neither footman nor horseman; withal, his sleep fled and his wakefulness redoubled, for he pined after his people and his homestead. He ate of the herbs of the earth and drank of its flowing waters and siesta'd under its trees at hours of noontide heats, till he turned from that road to another way and, following it other three days, came on the fourth to a land of green leas, dyed with the hues of plants and trees and with sloping valley sides made to please, abounding with the fruits of the earth. It had drunken of the cups of the cloud, to the sound of thunders rolling loud and the song of the turtle-dove gently sough'd, till its hill slopes were brightly verdant and its fields were sweetly fragrant. Then Kanmakan recalled his father's city Baghdad, and for excess of emotion he broke out into verse,
"I roam, and roaming hope I to return; *
Yet of returning see not how or when:
I went for love of one I could not win, *
Nor way of 'scaping ills that pressed could ken."
When he ended his recital he wept, but presently he wiped away his tears and ate of the fruits of the earth enough for his present need. Then he made the Wuzu-ablution and prayed the ordained prayers which he had neglected all this time; and he sat resting in that place through the livelong day. When night came he slept and ceased not sleeping till midnight, when he awoke and heard a human voice declaiming these couplets,
"What's life to me, unless I see the pearly sheen *
Of teeth I love, and sight that glorious mien?
Pray for her Bishops who in convents reign, *
Vying to bow before that heavenly queen.
And Death is lighter than the loved one's wrath, *
Whose phantom haunts me seen in every scene:
O joy of cup companions, when they meet, *
And loved and lover o'er each other lean!
E'en more in time of spring, the lord of flowers, *
When fragrant is the world with bloom and green:
Drainer of vine-juice! up wi' thee, for now *
Earth is a Heaven where sweet waters flow.[FN#76]"
When Kanmakan heard these distichs his sorrows surged up; his tears ran down his cheeks like freshets and flames of fire darted into his heart. So he rose to see who it was that spake these words, but saw none for the thickness of the gloom; whereupon passion increased on him and he was frightened and restlessness possessed him. He descended from his place to the sole of the valley and walked along the banks of the stream, till he heard the same voice sighing heavy sighs and reciting these couplets,