Kralj Nasir in njegov vezir

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Kralj Nasir in njegov vezir

It is also related, O fortunate King, that the vizier Abu Amir ibn Marwan was once presented with a Christian youth more beautiful than any eye had ever beheld. King al-Nasir caught sight of him and asked his master, “Where is this youth from?” “He is a gift from God,” he replied. The king said, “Would you overawe us with stars and take us captive with moons?” The vizier offered his apologies, then assembled a magnificent gift and sent it to the king with the youth, saying to him, “You must be part of the gift. Were I not compelled, my heart would never let you go.” With him he sent these two verses:

My lord, this full moon journeys to your sky, for moons belong to heaven, not to earth. To please you, I bestow my very soul, precious though it is; before me, none has sought another’s pleasure with his own heart’s blood. Al-Nasir was delighted by this, rewarded him with a great sum of money, and held him in high favor. Afterward, the vizier was presented with a slave girl, one of the most splendid women in the world. Fearing that news of her would reach al-Nasir, who would demand her, and that the youth’s story would be repeated, he assembled a gift still more magnificent than the first and sent it with the girl. But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she fell silent, ceasing her permitted tale.

Then, when it was the six hundred and ninety-eighth night,

She said: It has reached me, O fortunate King, that when the vizier Abu Amir was presented with the slave girl, he feared that news of her would reach King al-Nasir and that her story would be like the youth’s. So he assembled a gift more magnificent than the first and sent it with the girl, together with these verses:

My lord, here is the sun; the full moon went before her, and now the two bright orbs shall meet. A conjunction, by my life, that foretells good fortune: may you dwell through them forever amid heavenly rivers and gardens. By God, no third can rival them in beauty, and none can rival you in sovereignty over mankind. His standing with the king was thus redoubled. Then one of his enemies slandered him to al-Nasir, saying that some embers of his passion for the youth still glowed, and that whenever wine stirred him, he could not cease speaking of the boy and bitterly regretted having given him away. Al-Nasir said, “Do not speak another word against him, or I shall strike off your head.” Then he wrote a letter in the youth’s name, saying: “My lord, you know that you once were mine alone, and that my life with you was unbroken bliss. Though I am now with the sultan, I long to be alone with you again, but I fear the king’s wrath. Devise some means of asking him to send me to you.” He entrusted the letter to a young servant, instructing him to say, “It is from so-and-so,” and to declare that the king had never so much as spoken to the youth. When Abu Amir read it and the servant tried to deceive him, he sensed the trap and wrote these verses on the back of the letter:

After experience has taught its lessons well, should a prudent man venture into the lion’s thicket? I am not one whose love overcomes his reason, nor am I blind to what the envious allege. Though you were my soul, I gave you freely; and how can a soul return once it has left the body? When al-Nasir read the reply, he marveled at the vizier’s discernment and never again listened to anyone who slandered him. Later he asked him, “How did you escape the snare?” He replied, “Because my reason is not ensnared by passion.” And God knows best.