Prevod

It is told that the just King Kisra Anushirwan rode out hunting one day and, pursuing a gazelle, became separated from his army. As he followed the gazelle, he caught sight of a village nearby. By then he was sorely thirsty, so he made for the village and stopped at the door of a house along his way, asking for water to drink. A young girl came out, looked at him, then went back inside. She pressed the juice from a single stalk of sugar cane, mixed it with water, and poured it into a cup. She sprinkled over it a little fragrant substance that looked like dust, then handed it to Anushirwan. Looking into the cup, he saw what seemed to be dust floating in it, so he drank a little at a time until he had emptied it. Then he said to the girl, “What fine water, young girl, and how sweet! If only those specks had not clouded it.” The girl replied, “My guest, I put those specks in it deliberately.” “Why did you do that?” asked the king. She answered, “Because I saw how thirsty you were, and feared you might drink it all at one draught and harm yourself. Had there been no specks in it, you would have swallowed it quickly in a single draught, and drinking it in that fashion would have done you harm.” The just King Anushirwan marvelled at her words and her intelligence, recognizing in what she had said both keen perception and sound judgment. He asked her, “How many stalks did you press to make that drink?” “One stalk,” she replied. Anushirwan was astonished and called for the register of taxes collected from the village. Finding its tax low, he resolved in his heart that, once he returned to his throne, he would increase it. “How can a village where a single stalk yields so much juice pay so little tax?” he said. Then he left the village to resume the hunt. At the end of the day he returned, passed alone by that same door, and asked for water to drink. The very same girl came out, saw him, and recognized him. She went back inside to bring him water, but was slow in returning. Anushirwan urged her to hurry, saying, “Why have you taken so long?” But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she fell silent, leaving her tale untold.

When the three hundred and ninetieth night came

She said: It has reached me, O fortunate King, that when King Anushirwan urged the girl to hurry, he asked her, “Why have you taken so long?” She replied, “Because one stalk did not yield enough for your needs. I pressed three stalks, yet they did not yield as much as one stalk did before.” King Anushirwan asked, “What is the cause of that?” She answered, “The cause is that the sovereign’s intentions have changed.” “How do you know this?” he asked. She replied, “We have heard from wise men that when a sovereign’s intentions toward a people change, their blessings depart and their abundance dwindles.” Anushirwan laughed and banished from his heart the intention he had harboured against them. So greatly did her intelligence, perception, and eloquence please him that he married the girl at once.