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06-THE SECOND KALANDAR'S TALE.TXT-Part2_THE ARABIAN NIGHTS_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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board. I found her full of merchants and passengers, and one of them

cried, "O Captain, this ill-omened brute will bring us ill luck!"



And another said, "Turn this ill-omened beast out from among us."

The Captain said, "Let us kill it!" Another said, "Slay it with the



sword," a third, "Drown it," and a fourth, "Shoot it with an arrow."

But I sprang up and laid hold of the rais's skirt, and shed tears



which poured down my chops. The Captain took pity on me, and said,

"O merchants, this ape hath appealed to me for protection and I will



protect him. Henceforth he is under my charge, so let none do him

aught hurt or harm, otherwise there will be bad blood between us."



Then he entreated me kindly, and whatsoever he said I understood,

and ministered to his every want and served him as a servant, albeit



my tongue would not obey my wishes, so that he came to love me. The

vessel sailed on, the wind being fair, for the space of fifty days, at



the end of which we cast anchor under the walls of a great city

wherein was a world of people, especially learned men. None could tell



their number save Allah. No sooner had we arrived than we were visited

by certain Mameluke officials from the King of that city, who, after



boarding us, greeted the merchants and, giving them joy of safe

arrival, said: "Our King welcometh you, and sendeth you this roll of



paper, whereupon each and every of you must write a line. For ye shall

know that the King's Minister, a calligrapher of renown, is dead,



and the King hath sworn a solemn oath that he will make none Wazir

in his stead who cannot write as well as he could."



He then gave us the scroll, which measured ten cubits long by a

breadth of one, and each of the merchants who knew how to write



wrote a line thereon, even to the last of them, after which I stood up

(still in the shape of an ape) and snatched the roll out of their



hands. They feared lest I should tear it or throw it overboard, so

they tried to stay me and scare me, but I signed to them that I



could write, whereat all marveled, saying, "We never yet saw an ape

write." And the Captain cried: "Let him write, and if he scribble



and scrabble we will kick him out and kill him. But if he write fair

and scholarly, I will adopt him as my son, for surely I never yet



saw a more intelligent and well-mannered monkey than he. Would

Heaven my real son were his match in morals and manners!"



I took the reed and, stretching out my paw, dipped it in ink and

wrote, in the hand used for letters, these two couplets:



Time hath recorded gifts she gave the great,

But none recorded thine, which be far higher.



Allah ne'er orphan men by loss of thee

Who be of Goodness mother, Bounty's sire.



And I wrote in Rayhani or larger letters elegantly curved:

Thou hast a reed of rede to every land,



Whose driving causeth all the world to thrive.

Nil is the Nile of Misraim by thy boons,



Who makest misery smile with fingers five.

Then I wrote in the Suls character:



There be no writer who from Death shall fleet

But what his hand hath writ men shall repeat.



Write, therefore, naught save what shall serve thee when

Thou see't on Judgment Day an so thou see't!



Then I wrote in the character of Naskh:

When to sore parting Fate our love shall doom,



To distant life by Destiny decreed,

We cause the inkhom's lips to 'plain our pains,



And tongue our utterance with the talking reed.

Then I gave the scroll to the officials, and after we all had



written our line, they carried it before the King. When he saw the

paper, no writing pleased him save my writing, and he said to the



assembled courtiers: "Go seek the writer of these lines and dress

him in a splendid robe of honor. Then mount him on a she-mule, let a



band of music precede him, and bring him to the presence." At these

words they smiled and the King was wroth with them and cried "O



accursed! I give you an order and you laugh at me?" "O King,"

replied they, "if we laugh 'tis not at thee and not without a



cause." "And what is it?" asked he, and they answered, "O King, thou

orderest us to bring to thy presence the man who wrote these lines.



Now the truth is that he who wrote them is not of the sons of Adam,

but an ape, a tailless baboon, belonging to the ship Captain." Quoth



he, "Is this true that you say?" Quoth they, "Yea! by the rights of

thy munificence!" The King marveled at their words and shook with



mirth and said, "I am minded to buy this ape of the Captain."

Then he sent messengers to the ship with the mule, the dress, the



guard, and the state drums, saying, "Not the less do you clothe him in




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