THE STORY OF THE PORTER WITH THE YOUNG LADIES
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The king's daughter finally kills the efreet but in the fight, the saâlouk lost his left eye. Also, the king's daughter dies, as a consequence of the fight. And the saâlouk set out to go to Baghdad.
ON THE FIFTEENTH NIGHT
Sheherazade said:
The second saâlouk continued his story:
Then the rooster began to cry and flap its wings and wave to us with its beak, but we did not understand his language or what he was saying to us. Then he uttered such a terrible cry, towards us who did not understand him, that it seemed to us that the palace had collapsed on us. Then the rooster began to circle about in the middle of the yard and search for the grain until he found it in the hole of the basin, and he rushed upon it to peck it, when suddenly the grain fell into the water, in the middle of the basin, and changed into a fish which sank in the water. Then the rooster changed into a monstrous whale that jumped into the water and plunged there in pursuit of the fish and disappeared from view for a long time. Finally, we heard loud cries and we trembled with fear. And immediately we saw the efreet appear in his hideous form of an efreet, but he was all on fire like a hot coal, and from his mouth went forth flame, and from his eyes and his nostrils went forth flame and smoke; and behind him appeared the maiden, in her form of the king's daughter, but she was all on fire, like molten metal, and she set off in pursuit of the efreet who was already approaching us! Then we were all terribly afraid of being burned alive and of losing our lives, and we were about to throw ourselves into the water, when the efreet suddenly stopped us with a terrible cry and jumped on us in the middle of the room which overlooked the courtyard, and blew fire in our faces! But the girl reached for him and breathed fire on his face too. But all this caused the fire to reach us, too, coming from her and him; but her fire did us no harm, but his fire on the contrary! Thus a spark reached my monkey's left eye and damaged it beyond repair! And a spark struck the king in the face and burned his entire lower half, including his beard and mouth, and knocked out all his lower teeth. And a spark struck the eunuch in the chest, and he fully caught fire and burned and died that very instant and hour!
Meanwhile, the girl was still chasing the efreet and breathing fire at it. But suddenly we heard a voice saying: “Allah is the only great one! Allah is the only powerful! He crushes, dominates, and abandons the renegade who denies the faith of Mohammad, master of men!" Now, this voice was that of the king's daughter, who beckoned to us and showed us the efreet, which, completely burnt, had become a heap of ashes. Then she came to us and said, “Quick! bring me a cup of water!" They brought it to her. Then she spoke incomprehensible words over it, then sprinkled me with water and said to me: “Be delivered, in the name and by the truth of the only Truth! And, by the truth of the name of Allah the Almighty, return to your first image! "
Then I became a human being, as in the past, but I remained blind! Then the young girl, by way of consolation, said to me: "The fire has become fire again, my poor child!" And she said the same thing to her father, who had a burnt beard and fallen teeth! Then she said: “As for me, O father, I must inevitably die, for this death has been written to me! As for the efreet, I wouldn't have had so much trouble annihilating him if he had been a mere human being; I would have killed him the first time! But what tired me and gave me trouble was the scattering of the pomegranate seeds, because the seed that I hadn't been able to peck at first was precisely the main seed, which alone contained the soul of the genie! Ah! if I had been able to catch it, this grain, this efreet would have been destroyed instantly. But unfortunately! I did not see him. Because it was the fate of fate! And so I was compelled to fight him so many terrible battles underground, in the air and the water; and, each time he opened a door of salvation, I opened a door of perdition for him, until at last, he opened the terrible door of fire! Now, when the door of fire is once opened, one must die! But fate still allowed me to burn the efreet before I was burned myself! But, before killing him, I wanted to persuade him to embrace our faith, which is the holy religion of Islam; but he refused, and I burned him! And me, in my turn, I will die! And Allah will take my place with you and comfort you!"
At these words, she began to beg for fire until, at last, black sparks sprang up and rose towards her chest and her face. And when the fire reached her face, she wept, then she said: “I testify that there is no God but Allah! And I testify that Muhammad is the Apostle of Allah!"
As soon as she spoke these words, we saw her become a heap of ashes, right next to the heap of the efreet.
So we grieved for her. And I, I would have liked to be in her place, rather than to see under the aspect of a heap of ashes that radiant face of yore, that young girl who had rendered me such a blessing! But there is nothing to reply to the command of Allah.
When the king saw his daughter become a pile of ashes, he tore out what was left of his beard, slapped his cheeks, and tore his clothes. And I did the same. And we both wept over her. Then came the chamberlains and heads of government, and they found the sultan in a state of annihilation, sitting weeping beside two piles of ashes. They were very surprised and began to circle around the king without daring to speak to him, and that for an hour. Then the king came to his senses a little and told them what had happened to his daughter with the efreet. And they cried out: “Allah! God! What a great misfortune! what a calamity!"
Then came all the women of the palace with their female slaves; and for seven whole days all the ceremonies of condolence and mourning were performed.
Then the king ordered the construction of a large cupola for the ashes of his daughter, had it completed in great haste, and had the candles and lanterns lighted there day and night. As for the ashes of the efreet, they were scattered in the air under the curse of Allah.
But the sultan, after all these pains, fell so ill that he nearly died. This illness lasted a whole month. And, when his strength had returned a little, he sent for me, and said to me: "O young man, all of us here, before your arrival, we lived our lives in the most perfect happiness, sheltered from the misdeeds of the spell! And it took your coming to us to bring us all the afflictions. May we never have seen you, neither you nor your face of ill omen, your face of misfortune which threw us into this state of desolation! Because, first, you were the cause of the loss of my daughter, who, certainly, was worth more than a hundred men! And, secondly, because of you, it happened to me, in fact of burning, what you know! and my teeth are lost and the others damaged! And, thirdly, my poor eunuch, that good servant who raised my daughter, was killed too! But it is not your fault, and now your hand cannot remedy it: and all this has happened to us and you, by the order of Allah! Besides, Allah be praised who allowed my daughter to deliver you by losing herself! It's fate! Get out, my child, of this country! Because what has already happened to us because of you is enough for us. But all this was decreed by Allah. Get out and go in peace!"
So I, O my mistress, left the king's house, not quite believing in my salvation. And I didn't know where to go. And I remembered, in my heart, what had happened to me, from the beginning to the end: how the brigands of the desert had left me safe and sound, my journey for a month and my fatigues, my entry into the city as a stranger, and my meeting with the tailor, my meeting and my delicious intimacy with the adolescent girl underground, my deliverance from the hands of the efreet who first wanted to massacre me, and finally everything since the beginning to the end, including my change into a monkey become the servant of the sea captain, my purchase by the king for a very expensive price, because of my beautiful handwriting, my deliverance, in short everything! Even and above all, alas! the last incident that caused the loss of my eye. But I thanked Allah saying: "Better the loss of my eye than of my life!" After that, and before leaving town, I went to the hammam to take a bath. It was there that I shaved my beard, O my mistress, to be able to travel in safety in this state of saâlouk! And, since then, I haven't stopped crying every day and thinking about all the misfortunes I had endured and especially the loss of my left eye. And, each time I think of it, tears come to my right eye and prevent me from seeing, but will never prevent me from thinking of these verses of the poet:
Of my perplexity, does Allah merciful suspect?
Misfortunes fell on me, and too late I felt them!
Yet I will be patient in the face of my unbearable ills,
So that the world will know that I have waited patiently
On a thing even more bitter than patience itself!
Because patience has its beauty, especially practiced by the pious man!
Anyway, what Allah has decided on his creatures must run!
My mysterious beloved knows all the secrets of my bed.
No secret, even the secret of secrets, could be hidden from him.
As for the one who says that there are delights in this world,
Answer him that he will soon taste days more bitter than the juice of myrrh!
So I set out and I left this city, and I traveled through the countries, and I passed through the capitals, and I went towards the City of Peace, Baghdad, where I hoped to reach the emir of the Believers to tell him everything that had happened to me.
After long days, I finally arrived in Baghdad that very night. And I found this brother, the first saâlouk, who was there very perplexed, and I said to him: “Peace be upon you!: And he replied: "And be upon you peace! and the mercy of Allah! and all its blessings!" So I began to talk with him, and we saw our brother approach, this third, who, after the wishes of peace, told us that he was a foreign man. And we said to him: “We others also, we are two strangers, and we have arrived this very night in this blessed city!" Then the three of us walked together, and neither of us knew the other's story. And fate brought us to this door, and we entered your home!
And such are, O my mistress, the motives of my shaven beard and of my damaged eye!
Then the young mistress of the house said to this second saâlouk: “Your story is really extraordinary! Also, you can go! smooth your hair a little on your head and go and see the state of your path on the path of Allah!"
But he replied, “Truly, I will not leave from here until I have heard the story of my third companion!" Then the third saâlouk came forward and said...
At this point in her narration, Sheherazade saw the morning appear and quietly fell silent.
First Night - Second Night - Third Night - Fourth Night - Fifth Night - Sixth Night - Seventh Night
Eighth Night - Ninth Night - Tenth Night - Eleventh Night - Twelfth Night - Thirteenth Night
Fourteenth Night
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Though I'm thrilled that the wicked efreet was killed or vanquished at last but I'm sad for the king's daughter. I wasn't sure what the last seed stood for in the previous chapter, now I know. If only the rooster had pecked the seed, the calamities that befell them wouldn't have happened!
As I read on, I was angry with this second saâlouk. IF only he had not shown his "face of ill omen" at this king's palace, the daughter would still be alive, the eunuch would not be dead and the king wouldn't suffer those burns! Since the second saâlouk boarded the ship to India, misfortune had been his fate. Everyone who crossed paths with him, including the poor lady captured by the efreet, got into terrible problems. I think this second saâlouk needs some prayers to ward off the misfortune on his head! 😅
I wished the king's daughter did not die. She gave up so much for this stranger but like she said, It's the work of Allah. Let's hope the third saâlouk's story won't be as heartbreaking as this one. Thanks very much for these translations.
Some dragon fight tins, hehe.
Makes me picture movies like Merlin and Game of Thrones.
Words with deep meanings.. that was a great eulogy given by the young lady, the king's daughter.
This justified the loud cry she made of Allah been the only true God... I was wondering why she was shouting that when she should be busy with sorting for ways to finish off the Efreet
Now I understand that she already subdued the Efreet and just wanted to do some ministerial work for Allah, hehehe.
No one will blame the king for his actions at all... Some would have even sent him out or killed him when their daughter died but the King left him for long before deciding to send him out with love ...... indeed it was a tough decision for him to make and I respect it.
What a touching story honestly 😢
I also understand the second Saâlouk crying when he remembers everything that has happened to him especially the fact that he has lost his eyes but then it's still okay and wonderful he thanks Allah for safeguarding his life because life is the ultimate
Just like the second Saâlouk, I won't also jump out of this series until I hear the third Saâlouk and Still get to the root of the Series, hehehe.
Great post man
What I can say about this story is fate. Fate brought those brothers to meet each other without knowing themselves from somewhere or without being familiar with each other.
Also, the Saalouk in this story is destined to be delivered from being a Monkey. It is fate that took him to the King's house, become the one with the finest handwriting, meet the princess and got delivered.
Also, it is the princesses fate to deliver the Saalouk before she died. Everything happens for a reason. At the same time, it is fate that took the three brothers to the house of those ladies. All the things I see here is fate!!
It is quite painful that the Saalouk in this story never experienced happiness. His life is always bitter but there may be light at the end of the tunnel.
What a story! Series of sad events did occur here — the loss of the saalouk's eye, the demise of the eunuch, the loss of the king's teeth and most sadly, the death of the king's daughter — all these for one man.
I do not blame the king for sending the saalouk away. If only he never encountered the saalouk, everything would have been normal and his daughter would still be alive.
The king's daughter was however, bold and selfless. She sacrificed her life for someone she barely knew. Quite pitiful!
We finally got to see the eventful details surrounding the loss of the second saalouk's eye, surely,that of the third saalouk would be more thrilling.
Nice one💯❤️
The story can be interpreted as a commentary on human life's fragility and death's inevitability. Still, it also emphasizes the importance of faith and the belief in a higher power. It reflects the religious and cultural values of the time in which it was written, where Islam is portrayed as the only true faith and those who deny it are punished. Extremism? Probably.
Undoubtedly the story of saâlouk is so extraordinary that it clearly deserved the forgiveness of women. I myself would have forgiven him too. Rarely had I heard a story with so much action and passion.
Unfortunately things did not end well for the princess or her father who suffered great misfortunes.
We will see what story the third saâlouk has prepared for us but this will certainly be difficult to overcome.
I did not expect that ending with the king's daughter, I found her death very regrettable for being the payment when he opened the door of the fire.
Now, the protagonist of the story laments for all the bad things that happened to him, however, as he himself says, it was written and Allah's decision was for him to stay alive, despite all the things that happened to him.
Now he has a lot of story to tell.