Therewith Al-Abbas smiled and her verses pleased him. Then he bade the fourth damsel come forward and sing (now she was from the Sundown-land[440] and her name was Balakhshá); so she came forward and taking the lute and the zither, tuned the strings and smote them in many modes; then she returned to the first and improvising, sang these couplets,
"When to the séance all for pleasure hied * Thy lamping eyes
illumined its every side;
While playing round us o'er the wine-full bowl * Those
necklace-pearls old wine with pleasure plied,[441] Till wits the wisest drunken by her grace * Betrayed for joyance
secrets sages hide;
And, seen the cup, we bade it circle round * While sun and moon
spread radiance side and wide.
We raised for lover veil of love perforce * And came glad tidings
which new joys applied:
Loud sang the camel-guide; won was our wish * Nor was the secret
by the spy espied:
And, when my days were blest by union-bliss * And to all-parting
Time was aid denied,
Each 'bode with other, clear of meddling spy * Nor feared we hate
of foe or neighbour-pride.
The sky was bright, friends came and severance fared * And
Love-in-union rained boons multiplied:
Saying 'Fulfil fair union, all are gone * Rivals and fears lest
shaming foe deride:'
Friends now conjoinèd are: wrong passed away * And meeting-cup
goes round and joys abide:
On you be Allah's Peace with every boon * Till end the dooming
years and time and tide."
When Balakhsha had ended her verse, all present were moved to delight and Al-Abbas said to her, "Brava, O damsel!" Then he bade the fifth damsel come forward and sing (now she was from the land of Syria and her name was Rayhánah; she was passing of voice and when she appeared in an assembly, all eyes were fixed upon her), so she came forward and taking the viol (for she was used to play upon all instruments) recited and sang these couplets,
"Your me-wards coming I hail to sight; * Your look is a joy
driving woe from sprite:
With you love is blest, pure and white of soul; * Life's sweet
and my planet grows green and bright:
By Allah, you-wards my pine ne'er ceased * And your like is rare
and right worthy hight.
Ask my eyes an e'er since the day ye went * They tasted sleep,
looked on lover-wight:
My heart by the parting-day was broke * And my wasted body
betrays my plight:
Could my blamers see in what grief am I, * They had wept in
wonder my loss, my blight!
They had joined me in shedding torrential tears * And like me
a-morn had shown thin and slight:
How long for your love shall your lover bear * This weight o'er
much for the hill's strong height?
By Allah what then for your sake was doomed * To my heart, a
heart by its woes turned white!
An showed I the fires that aye flare in me, * They had 'flamed
Eastern world and earth's Western site.
But after this is my love fulfilled * With joy and gladness and
mere delight;
And the Lord who scattered hath brought us back * For who doeth
good shall of good ne'er lack."
When King Al-Aziz heard the damsel's song, both words and verses pleased him and he said to Al-Abbas, "O my son, verily long versifying hath tired these damsels, and indeed they make us yearn after the houses and the homesteads with the beauty of their songs. These five have adorned our meeting with the charm of their melodies and have done well in that which they have said before those who are present; so we counsel thee to free them for the love of Allah Almighty." Quoth Al-Abbas, "There is no command but thy command;" and he enfranchised the ten damsels in the assembly; whereupon they kissed the hands of the King and his son and prostrated themselves in thanksgiving to the Lord of All-might. Then they put off that which was upon them of ornaments and laying aside the lutes and other instruments of music, kept to their houses like modest women and veiled, and fared not forth.[442] As for King Al-Aziz, he lived after this seven years and was removed to the mercy of Almighty Allah; when his son Al-Abbas bore him forth to burial as beseemeth kings and let make for him perlections and professional recitations of the Koran. He kept up the mourning for his father during four successive weeks, and when a full-told month had elapsed he sat down on the throne of the kingship and judged and did justice and distributed silver and gold. He also loosed all who were in the jails and abolished grievances and customs dues and righted the oppressed of the oppressor; so the lieges prayed for him and loved him and invoked on him endurance of glory and continuance of kingship and length of life and eternity of prosperity and happiness. The troops submitted to him, and the hosts from all parts of the kingdom, and there came to him presents from each and every land: the kings obeyed him and many were his warriors and his grandees, and his subjects lived with him the most easeful of lives and the most delightsome. Meanwhile, he ceased not, he and his beloved, Queen Mariyah, in the most enjoyable of life and the pleasantest, and he was vouchsafed by her children; and indeed there befel friendship and affection between them and the longer their companionship was prolonged, the more their love waxed, so that they became unable to endure each from other a single hour, save the time of his going forth to the Divan, when he would return to her in the liveliest that might be of longing. And after this fashion they abode in all solace of life and satisfaction till there came to them the Destroyer of delights and the Severer of societies. So extolled be the Eternal whose sway endureth for ever and aye, who never unheedeth neither dieth nor sleepeth! This is all that hath come down to us of their tale, and so the Peace!
SHAHRAZAD AND SHAHRYAR.[443]
King Shahryar marveled at this history[444] and said, "By Allah, verily, injustice slayeth its folk!"[445] And he was edified by that, wherewith Shahrazad bespoke him and sought help of Allah the Most High. Then said he to her, "Tell me another of thy tales, O Shahrazad; supply me with a pleasant story and this shall be the completion of the story-telling."Shahrazad replied, "With love and gladness! It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that a man once declared to his mates, 'I will set forth to you a means of security against annoy.' A friend of mine once related to me and said, "We attained to security against annoy, and the origin of it was other than this; that is, it was the following'"[446]