Prevod

It is also related that one day the Commander of the Faithful, Harun al-Rashid, rode out with Abu Yaqub the boon companion, Jaafar al-Barmaki, and Abu Nuwas. As they went through the desert, they saw an old man leaning upon a donkey of his. Harun al-Rashid said to Jaafar, “Ask this old man where he comes from.” So Jaafar asked him, “Where have you come from?” “From Basra,” he replied. And dawn overtook Shahrazad, and she ceased her permitted tale.

When it was the three hundred and ninety-fifth night

She said: It has reached me, O fortunate King, that when Jaafar al-Barmaki asked the man, “Where have you come from?” he replied, “From Basra.” Jaafar then asked him, “And where are you bound?” “To Baghdad.” “And what will you do there?” “Seek a remedy for my eyes.” Harun al-Rashid said, “Jaafar, have a little sport with him.” Jaafar replied, “If I do, I shall hear something I would rather not.” But the Caliph said, “By my claim upon your obedience, you must jest with him.” So Jaafar said to the old man, “If I prepare a remedy that will help you, how will you reward me?” He replied, “God Most High will reward you on my behalf with something better for you than any recompense I could give.” Jaafar said, “Listen, then, while I prescribe this remedy, which I would prescribe for no one but you.” “What is it?” asked the old man. Jaafar said, “Take three ounces of blowing wind, three ounces of sunbeams, three ounces of moonlight, and three ounces of lamplight. Mix them all together and leave them in the wind for three months. Then put them in a bottomless mortar and pound them for three months. When you have finished pounding them, put them in a cracked bowl and leave the bowl in the wind for three months. Then take three drachms of this medicine every day at bedtime, and continue for three months; you will recover, God Most High willing.” When the old man heard Jaafar’s words, he stretched himself out on his donkey and let fly a monstrous fart. “Take this fart,” he said, “as your reward for prescribing this remedy. Once I have used it and God has granted me recovery, I shall give you a slave girl to serve you all your life, with such service that God will cut your days short. Then, when you die and God hurries your soul to the Fire, she will smear your face with her shit out of grief for you, and lament and beat her cheeks and wail, crying in her mourning, ‘O cold-chinned fool, how cold your chin is!’” Harun al-Rashid laughed until he fell flat on his back, and ordered that the man be given three thousand dirhams.