THE STORY OF THE PORTER WITH THE YOUNG LADIES
Harun al-Rashid
Source
The seven men were witnesses to some strange behaviors from the three young ladies.
Then, six of them decided to ask for some explanations, although they had promised not to do it.
Will something bad happen to them?
ON THE FIFTH NIGHT
Sheherazade said:
When the mistress of the house had finished her song, her sister said to her: “May Allah comfort you, O my sister!" But the young portress was seized with a such affliction that she tore her clothes and fell to the ground completely unconscious.
But, by this movement, as his body was laid bare, the caliph noticed that this body bore the imprint of lashes and rods, and he was astonished to the limit of astonishment. But the provider approached and threw a little water on the face of her fainted sister who recovered her senses; then she brought him a new robe and put it on her.
Then the caliph said to Ja'far: “You don’t seem to be moved! Can't you see the marks of the blows on this woman? As for me, I can no longer remain silent, and I will not rest until I have discovered the truth about all this and also about the incident with the two female dogs!" And Ja'far replied: “O lord and master, remember the condition imposed: — Do not speak of what concerns you, or you will hear things which will not please you!"
In the meantime, the provider rose and took the lute: she leaned it on her rounded bosom, pinched it with the tips of her fingers, and sang:
If someone came to complain to us about love, what would we answer?
If we ourselves were damaged by love, what would we do?
For, if we charge an interpreter to answer for us,
The interpreter, in truth, will not be able to render all the complaints of a loving heart.
And, if we wait and suffer in silence the flight of the beloved,
The pain will soon have put us on the brink of death!
O pain! There are only regrets, mourning, and tears streaming down our cheeks.
And you, dear absent, who fled the gaze of my eyes and cut the ties that attached you to my entrails,
Say! have you, at least, kept in you a trace of our past love,
A small trace that would last in spite of time?
Or have you forgotten, thanks to absence, the cause which has exhausted all my strength,
And, through you, put me in this state of thinness and weakness?
If therefore exile should thus be my share, I will one day ask God, our Lord,
To account for all my sufferings!
At this sad song, the mistress of the house tore her clothes, like her first sister, wept, and fainted. And the provider got up and dressed her in a second robe, after taking care to throw water on her face and make her come to herself. Then the mistress of the house recovered a little, sat down on the bed, and said to the provider: "Please sing again so that we can pay our debts! One more time only!" Then the purveyor tuned the lute again and sang these stanzas:
Until when are this distance and this abandonment so hard?
Don't you know that my eyes have no more tears to shed?
You leave me! But do you think you will desert your old friend for a long time?
Oh! if your goal was only to kindle jealousy in me, you have succeeded!
If treacherous fate were always to favor men in love,
Poor women would not find a single day to reproach unfaithful lovers!
But me, alas! to whom should I complain to relieve myself a little of my misfortunes,
Of my misfortunes by your hand, O murderer of this heart!
Alas! alas! what a disappointment awaits the plaintiff
Who would have lost the written proof of his claim or paid debt!
And the sadness of my aching heart only increases with the madness of your desire!
I want you! You promised me! But where are you?
O brothers, Muslims! I leave it to you to avenge me on the infidel!
May he experience equal suffering! Hardly will his eye close for rest,
When insomnia immediately reopens it wide!
He made me reach, through love, the worst humiliations!
So I hope that someone else, in my place, experiences the greatest satisfaction, at his expense!
It is up to now that I have spent myself for his love!
But it is up to him, tomorrow, to him who blames me, to suffer!
Then again the portress fell unconscious, and her naked body seemed covered with the imprint of whips and rods.
At this sight, the three saâlouks said to each other: "How much better for us not to enter this house, even at the risk of spending the whole night lying on the piles of earth, because this sight has just saddened us!" Then the caliph turned to them and said: “And why is that?" They replied: “It is because we are so deeply concerned about what has just happened!" Then the caliph asked them: "So, aren't you people from the house?" They answered: “No! So we think this house belongs to that man who is there next to you!" Then the porter exclaimed: “Ha! By Allah! it is for the first time, this very night, that I am coming into this house! How much better it would have been for me to have slept on the mounds of rubble rather than in this house!"
Then all came together and said: “We are here seven men, and they are only three women in all, not one more! Ask them to explain this state of affairs. If they do not want to answer us with good grace, they will answer us by force!" And on that, they all agreed, except Ja'far who said: "Do you think that is a fair and honest idea? Remember that we are their guests and that they have given us their conditions which we must follow with righteousness! Besides, here is the night that will end, and each of us will go to see the state of his destiny on the path of Allah!" Then he winked at the caliph and, taking him aside, said to him: “We have only one hour left to spend here. And I promise you that tomorrow I will bring them into your hands, and we will ask them for their story!" But the caliph refused and said: "I don't have the patience to wait until tomorrow!" Then they continued their dialogue by saying: like this and like that! All the same, they ended up asking themselves: “But who among us will ask them the question?" And some opined that it belonged to the porter.
In the meantime, the young ladies asked them: “O good people, what are you talking about?" Then the porter arose, stood before the mistress of the house, and said to her; "O my sovereign, I ask you and conjure you in the name of Allah, on behalf of all these guests, to tell us the story of these two bitches, and why you have punished them thus and then weep over them and kiss them! And tell us also, so that we may hear it, the cause of the imprint of the whips and rods on your sister's body! And this is our request! And now peace be with you!"
Then the mistress of the house asked all those assembled: "Is it true what the porter says in your name?" And all of them, except Ja'far, answered: “Yes, it is true!" And Ja'far didn't say a word.
Then the girl, hearing their answer, said: “By Allah! O our guests, you have just committed the worst and most criminal of offenses against us! However, previously, we had set you the condition that if someone spoke of what did not concern him, he would hear things that would not please him! And was it not enough for you to come into our house and eat of our provisions? But it is not your fault, but the fault of our sister who brought you to us!"
At these words, she rolled up her sleeves on her wrists, stamped the ground three times with her foot, and exclaimed: “Hey! Come quickly!" ...
— At this point in her narration, Sheherazade saw the morning appear and quietly fell silent.